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Introductory Remarks: ‘Religions of the Heart’

Introductory Remarks: ‘Religions of the Heart’ The new historical context Crisis and Renewal in 17th Century France Crisis in Church and Society Catholic Reform Ignatius Loyola and the Society of Jesus The Spanish Carmel Teresa of Ávila and John of the Cross The Oratory of Philip Neri= Initiatives at reform Spiritual Renewal: The ‘milieux dévots’ Background The “milieux dévots” François de Sales (1567-1622) Pierre de Bérulle (1575-1629) Life and works of Pierre de Bérulle Bérulle’s Theology and Spirituality A Theology of the Incarnation Christian Spirituality The Eucharist and the Priesthood The Bérullian Current The French Carmel The Oratory Charles de Condren (1588-1641) Vincent de Paul (1581-1660) Jean-Jacques Olier (1608-1657) Jean Eudes (1601-1680) The Devotion to the Sacred Heart Marguerite-Marie Alacoque (1647-1690) Jansenism 1. Saint-Cyran and Port-Royal 2. The Jansenist Controversy in France 3. Jansenist Spirituality Quietism Madame Guyon 18th Century Continuation of forms of devotion Continuation of mystical currents The confrontation with enlightened modernity

The new historical context French Catholic Spirituality in 17-18th century. Decartes and Kant are at the basis of our self understanding and the basis of theology. Less known is the Catholic Milleux founded in the history. Pre-VCII Catholicism is the focus, tracing the roots. It is also the way way immediate previous generations lived their faith. This was the Gran Siecle of France - quite powerful force, also the siecle de saints. "Real saints in large numbers and everywhere." (Bremond) See biblio. Spirituality of the Heart - Religion of the Heart. Typical of this modern - post-medieval - pre-contemporary era, Affective focus, Heart is connection between human and divine.

“The religion of the heart movements represented not only the continuation of the older tradition of the preaching of divine love, but also the subtle transformation of sacramental, rigorist, and mystical traditions, so that the whole, intricate religious back-ground came to play in the development of new religious movements in the seventeenth century.”

The spiritual movements that we will discuss here are typical for the 17th century. Their common characteristic has been termed “religion of the heart.” Affective devotion is the means to approach the divine. The ‘heart’, the central means of contact between the human and the divine.
Not only Catholics It is remarkable that this current of religious life emerged in 17th-century Europe in various Christian denominations, not only in Roman Catholicism. We see similar currents, e.g., among the Quakers, among more conventional Puritans, in continental Pietism – even in Judaism, in Eastern Europe Hasidism. Ted Camp­bell characterized these ‘religions of the heart’ as follows:

Affective experience became the center of the religious life, so that sacraments, moral discipline, and meditative techniques were rele­gated to the status of means to a greater end, namely, the personal and affective experience of God. In this ‘definition’, we can observe already some basic components of the tradition of religious life from which religions of the heart emerged and which they further developed, by relocating the center of religious attention. There is no deep break, but rather a shift, a changing continuation of existing, late-medieval spiritual and devotional practices into new directions. Four such distinctive forms of religious life.

ONE Sacramental A widespread form of religious life was essentially sacramental. The divine is revealed in a space-time continuum: in specific persons, places, objects, sacred stories. These realities function as “doors to the sacred,” predominant in the Middle Ages. Divine revelation had taken its definitive form in Jesus Christ, the grace of Christ was experienced through the sacraments, sacred times and places, uniting human and divine. The protestant Reformation represented a reaction against this external grace - focus on interior action of God and on the Word.
TWO Moral Life In the late Middle Ages rigorous moral life was stressed, Imitatio Christi, the imitation of Christ, became the model of religious life, popularized by the Brethren of Common Life into the devotio moderna. Reaction say we don't 'merit' salvation, but it is a free gift - both ways. Sola fidei challenges this. The religion of the heart movements react and positively answer.
THREE The Ascetical-mystical Role of ascetic prepartion for mystical experience will be questioned, as will the authenticity of mysticism without asceticism. More an more there is the focus on personal encounter of the divine through affections. Mysticism in the broad sense. In principle it is available to all. In the Western church of the late Middle Ages, the mystical tradition had developed as an extension of the tradition of moral rigorism. At the time of the Counter-Reformation, we notice a revival of mysticism in the Carme­lite order.
FOUR Personal Encounter Religions of the heart share an emphasis on the development of religious life through “personal encounter with the divine through affective experien­ce.” The relation with the divine is very personal; spiritual life is directed towards a personal God, who is endowed with emotions, passions, affec­tions: Mysticism in a broad sense, not confined to a religious elite with their strict ascetic discipline and gnosticism. Religious experience is available to all through affective experience.

This spiritual current, with its emphasis on affective and popular religiosity, recurred on two traditions in Western Christianity during the 16th century. The tradition of apocalyptic speculation, often characterized by claims of personal illumination, identified itself with popular movements (this was particu­lar­ly the case in certain currents in the Reformation, such as the Anabaptists).

The new historical context

From the 16th century, this was a period full of dramatic events caused by the clashes between Catholics and Protestants, with political consequences. These oppositions often exploded into religious wars, and at the beginning of the 17th century, they almost cover the totality of Western Europe.
The Thirty Years War (1618-1648) began as a local conflict in Prague, soon divided most of Europe in Catholic Holy Roman Empire, (Spain, Austria and Habs­burgs), and a protestants (Germany, Holland, England, and Sweden). Later involvement of France was crucial: (Richelieu) sided with the protestants – predominantly catholic (but also Gallicanist). The causes of the War were multiple: economic, political, cultural. For the popular mind, religious issues were at stake, the principle of cuius regio, eius religio arose. France came out of the war as the most powerful nation in Europe. What concerns us most, are the cultural, ‘mental’ effects of this large period of conflict and bloodshed among the people. Three “cultural shifts.”
ONE Frustration and Uncertainty The endless wars of religion created a sense of frustration and uncertainty among people. Apparently, religion not only had brought much suffering, it also showed to be unable to solve conflicts. Many turned toward the ideal of a more ‘party-less’ Christendom.
TWO Questioning Authority - turn to experience Questioning the validity of traditional authorities lead to an epochal shift from traditional authority to personal experience – also in religious movements. Even t­hough they can be considered as ‘reactionary’ (returning to older forms of belief), they also display a rejection of external authority, in so far as they emphasize the authority of inward experience as the basis of (religious) knowledge.
THREE Classical Revival It can be seen in the rise of publications of ancient, classical texts, also from the ancient history of Christianity. There are currents advocating a ressourcement on true primitive Christianity.
mental uni­verse of Catholicism in this period covers all aspects of the life of a community (“collectivité”): its material, cultural, religious, ethical life. We focus on the spirituality of a number of leading religious personalities in France during the 17th (and 18th) century with attention to spiritual writings: the texts in which these ‘masters of spirituality’ have written down the basic elements of their religious experience. Spirituality of ordinary people was closely related to that of the elite.

Crisis and Renewal in 17th Century France

Crisis in Church and Society

Causes of Crisis financial, economic, demographic, social. Catholics interpreted the crisis in religious terms: the calamities of the times were punish­ments for sins, which had provoked God’s anger. The material conse­quences of the religious wars were disastrous for the population, and they had also very negative effects on religious and spiritual life

The church of France was a rich church, and in the beginning of the century, the devastations of religious wars were, most of the time, repaired quickly. There was partial control of the church by the state, the king nominated bishops, nobility dominated the clergy. The control over the lower clergy was less strict, Benefices were required for clergy support. The bond between the religious and the financial occasioned unac­cept­able situations (for example, the protestant Duke of Sully was titulary of four abbeys). The king was crowned by God; he was the defender of the ‘true faith’.

Coexistence of two confessions was a threat for the unity of the king­dom, which was based on the principle: “une foi, une loi, un roi” (one faith, one law, one king). Hugenot protestants in somewhat peaceful minority co-existece. 1559-95 war - 1572 mascre of St. Bartholomew's day of protestants. In 1598, after various efforts at pacification, King Henri IV promulgated the Edict of Nantes, in which the Huguenots were granted a certain freedom of religion. How­ever, the edict was badly received by the Catholics, who were unable to under­stand that Protestants were assigned the same rights as Catholics. The Edict of Nantes seen as religious failure as a catholic nation. toleration - you can move to favorable reign. Religious tolerance was a tolerance imposed from above, and based on the separation of the civil and religious area. The unity of religion depended on God, but the unity of the people was a concern for the king. The imposed tolerance was one of the causes of the many internal tensions in the country. Revoked in 1685 by Louis XIV causing immigration of Hugenots.
Foreign politics After the murder of Henri IV (1610), the 9-years old Louis XIII ascended the throne (his mother Marie de Médicis acted as regent). When, in the 1620’s, the Habsburg powers became a threat for France, in 1624 the renowned anti-Spanish Bishop of Luçon, Armand Jean Duplessis, Cardinal and Duke of Richelieu (1585-1642), was included in the “Conseil du Roi.” In the 1630’s, France began to score successes in foreign politics. From that time on, it sided definitively with the anti-Habsburg camp and in 1635 it intervened for the first time in the Thirty Years War. For many French Catholics, Richelieu’s option for the protestant princes against the catholic Spanish emperor was unacceptable.
Clergy Religious and clergy condition was deplorable. Council of Trent remained dead letter. The bishop’s office was a privilege of the nobility; no visitation, pastoral care. Clergy: Illiterate, Concubinage, Alcoholism, Sorcery, no Formation. People placed in monasteries by family resulting in mediocrity, and by precarious material con­ditions of life.
Fundamental Crisis and Incertitude Krumenacker says 16th century: had a kind of eschatological anxiety existed; 17th century: a feeling of ‘exhaustion’ of religious life, the failure of church reform and the confronta­tion with dramatic religious conflicts.
Conclusion Michel de Certeau - history of spirituality: A whole universe crumbled to ruin. The Wars of Religion brought a relative element into man’s convictions; the proli­feration of churches split up the homogeneous nature of men’s securities, both religious and mental; [widespread social unrest - only nature seemed to hold absolute power]. Social aggressiveness of groups and in the hypersensitivity of individ­uals could be both maudlin and cruel, both ambiti­ous and super­subtle; and finally in the underground demonological urges which tried to localize the unnamable menace by sacrific­ing ‘sorcerers’ and ‘witches’, who had no means of disproving this designation, and whose agonies of suffering often seemed to suggest their guilt. The discovery of new races of men led to a questioning of tradi­tional values and lowered the credit of the intellectual and religi­ous teachings which had come down from the past. Scientific dis­cover­ies told in the same direction. A world-scheme in ruin, or a sheer vacuum – both were equally power­ful in removing the sense of mystery from man’s knowledge and man’s abilities.
Response individuals felt forced to search for certainty themselves. Gradually, the question of the subject returned (see Descartes). People first of all paid attention to their own experiences, which determined their spiritual quest (hence, the many biographical narratives of mystics), People attempted to reconstruct the world and reform the church. Finally, we can point to a number of typical expressions of religious life among catholic people in this period. Most of them were reactions against the new accents and respective attacks which developed in Protestantism.
Popular religiosity sense of the miraculous omnipresent. Numerous grand processions with a penitential character, also pilgrimages to Rome and Marian Shrines. Forty Hours prayer, propagated by the Capuchins from 1593, eucharistic devotion was not Mass, but exposition. There were new religi­ous confraternities of penitents and Marian congregations. There was a belief in a tran­scendent God, no break between heaven and earth, possibility of direct contact between the divine and the human. The majority of people still lived in a magical universe, filled with supernatural powers, divine or satanic.

Catholic Reform

The Catholic Reformation, started with the Council of Trent, began to develop and find its shape. Towards the end of the 16th century, clear impulses to such renewal could be observed, most often in Southern Europe. Renewal of spiritual life in the 16th century had key personalities who realized a significant renewal of spirituality. They shaped spiritual life in modern Catholicism and should, therefore, be treated in this context.

Ignatius Loyola and the Society of Jesus

In 1534, Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) founded the ‘Compañía de Jesús’, a non-monastic order of secular clergy who committed themselves to the reform of the church and the evangelization of the ‘pagans’. The personal spirituality of Ignatius is reflected in the Spiritual Exercises and in a Spirituality of service, oriented to action in the world. The Jesuits considered their work as a mission to serve the world, available through the fourth vow of loyalty to the pope. Their spirituality was a world-confirming spirituality, in a positive appreciation of human values and was connected to action. Formally, the Jesuits contributed to the renewal of catholic spirituality by introducing new instruments, which influenced the internal development of spiritual life: retreats, spiritual direction, confraternities in every Jesuit institu­tion. The 16th century saw two currents, one was more ascetic, the other more mystically oriented. The balance between both was preserved by Jerónimo Nadal (1507-80), “the theologian of Ignatian spirituality,” “in actione contemplativus,” contemplative in action.

The Spanish Carmel Teresa of Ávila and John of the Cross

In 16th-century Spain, Teresa of Ávila (1515-82) and John of the Cross (1542-91) expounded a fundamental renewal of spiritual life, with subjectivization and interiorization, (also Lucien Fevre - silence in prayer). This was accompanied by a sharp polemics on the inquisition of “Alumbrados,” a free and unconventional current in spirituality. Both Teresa and John suffered from this conflict as well, but succeeded in bequeathing an impressive legacy. Both wrote their experiences which belong to the major achievements of the Western mystical tradition. Teresa’s works were autobiographical and visionary. Her spirituality was affective and was concentrated on the figure of Jesus Christ. John of the Cross wrote brilliant poems as well as theological reflections, in which he attempted to reach the core of mystical experience. Teresa introduced a reform of the Carmel, in 1562, at Ávila: discalced Carmelites, with austerity, contemplation and poverty. Later, John of the Cross reformed the male branch. Recognized by the pope in 1580, this spread also outside of Spain. The writings became also known in Western Europe in the first decades of the 17th century, particularly by means of translations. John's Nada, nada, nada, or annihilate all, will return, he is somewhat anti intellectual.

The Oratory of Philip Neri=

Ignatian counterpart, Philip Neri (1515-95) formed a more loose form of living together in freedom and spontaneity. Philip Neri founded a confraternity in 1548 for care of sick and support of pilgrims to Rome. Secular priests gathered for prayer and spirituality, “Our only rule is love.” Under the jurisdiction of the local bishop, they spread over Western Europe as well.

Initiatives at reform

Also ‘Secular priests of Christian Doctrine’, who were active in Italy and France were dedicated to the reform of the church and pastoral service, they deliberately lived in the world.
Reform among the Laity Elementary religious education, catechism expanded, confraternities occasioned suspicion from the ecclesiastical authorities because they seemed to escape clerical control. Devo­tion was explicitly connected with charit­able action. Important were the “confré­ries du Saint-Sacre­ment” (confraternities of the Blessed Sacrament), estab­lished in Rome in 1539, who were encouraged by church authorities because they submit­ted totally to the clergy and developed a centralized devotion. Missions were also popular.

Spiritual Renewal: The ‘milieux dévots’

17th century in France (the ‘Grand Siècle’) the ‘siècle des saints’.

Background

Classical antiquity was well known. Renewed interest for stoicism, which was considered to provide an escape from eschato­logical fear, Cicero and Seneca. The Bible was frequently published, particularly in the reaction against Protes­tantism. The Church Fathers were well known, especially Augustine and Pseudo-Dionysius the Areo­pagite. Scholasticism provided a theology with technical language. Spirituality devotio moderna, Imitatio Christi of Thomas a Kempis: detachment and abnegation and nourish the friend­ship for Christ. The emphasis was laid on communion, on the dignity of the priest and the Eucharist. Other writings from the Rheno-Flemish School circulated, through the agency of the Carthusians. Particularly the so-called Evangelische peerle (the Evan­gelical Pearl), written by a woman from Brabant, was published in 1537, also available were Ruusbroec and Harphius. Writings focused on mystical union or abstract spirituality. South Jesuits and Carmelites, which were translated in French in the early 17th century. Peoplelarge variety of ‘sources’ at their disposal and they made extensive use of them, their spirituality can be charac­ter­ized as an eclecticism, which increased in the course of the century.
A hierarchical setting People understood the world hierarchically, French society was divided in estates: the nobility, the clergy, and the ‘third estate’. Society was unequal, spirituality was hierarchical as well. Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, his De caelesti hierarchia and De ecclesiastica hierarchia saw God as absolutely transcendent and unknowable. Creatures come from and return to God. God acts through intermediaries: angles, church. 3 Hierarchies of angels, 2 Hierarchies of church: a mystical hierarchy, but the system was also transposed to other areas (such as the canonical and juridical order), more intermediaries make closer. Dionysius is extremely important. Person can be deified: purification, illumination and union (mystical vision is knowing and unknowing, light and dark­ness - without mediation).
Exemplarism Neo-Platonism was still present, Ideal world, in itself (Plato) or in God’s knowledge (Augustine), has exem­plary causality toward the material world and to human knowl­edge (metaphysical and episte­mological). Material imitates, participates in the real and idea. We know exemplar, archetype, not the existant, particular. The world is the image of God; Similarities, resemblances connect the spiritual with the material in a causal way. This is challenged by Descartes separating theology from science - breaking causality, empiricism, scientific causality. New world view undercut hierarchies and theologies and mysticism build on it. Priest remains a mediary between human and divine. Spirituality: person can participate in ideal by imitation = participation.

The “milieux dévots”

Beginning of the 17th century: reformation & spiritual ressourcement. Often upper class, often religious, clergy, aristocracy, civil bourgeoisie, (sophisticated, literate, theological, pious). Militant Catholicism, defensive. Women were central. Monastery or boarding school educated, women important in culture and thought, Often guided by a spiritual director.
The “cercle Acarie” Madame Acarie = Barbe Avrillot (1566-1618) married, in 1582, Pierre Acarie, social service. 1588 knew Rheno-Flemish and Spanish spirituality. Visions, stigmata, not so surprising, Family opposed. Optimistic humanistic environment of the “humanisme dévot,” with its emphasis on natural values, such ecstatic phenomena, provoked suspicion. In 1592, verified by Capuchin Benoît de Canfield. Connected with Carthusian Beaucousin, new spiritual director from 1595 to 1602. Also connected with Pierre de Bérulle. Much social service, spiritual friends at the center of a network of of reformers. “Hôtel Acarie” was frequented by all the major figures of the catholic reform in France: Pierre de Bérulle, André Du Val, Cistercians, Capu­chins, Canfield; Brétigny, the promoter of Spanish Carmelites and his friend Gallemant, and further: jurists, “grandes dames,” Jesuits such as Jacques Sirmond. François de Sales used to visit the hôtel during his stay in Paris. Carmel In 1613, when her husband died, Madame Acarie entered the Carmel (fol­low­­ing her three daughters) and adopted the name Marie de l’Incarnation, Mary of the Incarnation.
Benoît de Canfield (1562-1610) – the ‘abstract school’ William Fitch, born 1562 in Canfield (Essex) con­verted to Catholicism, studied at Douai, became a Capuchin in 1586 and resided in Paris. Main work: Rule of Perfection in 1609. The successfulabstract school preferred essential mysticism, in its most abstract form inflluenced by dionysius, involving the voluntary extinction of every notional activity, to reach the divine essence directly, by passing over any created intermediary, even the humanity of Christ. The Rule of Perfection Christian perfection: progressive, perfect identification of the human will with the absolute will of God. 3 expressions: 1) the external will - active life; 2) the interior will - human subjectivity, revealed through grace; 3) the essential will - God self, pure spirit, pure abstraction, imageless and supereminent life. Stages not different ‘wills’ in God, deeper manifestation of one and the same reality. 4 prayer forms: vocal prayer, mental prayer and, adhesion to the will of God and “anéan­tissement,” or “annihilation.” Major player in abstract spirituality, which dominated in the “cercle Acarie”. Rule eventually supplanted as being too speculative, too high for ordinary people who were unable to reach such level of mystical life.

François de Sales (1567-1622)

François de Sales was born in the Savoy and educated in Annecy, Paris and Padova. Gave up law for priesthood, ordined (1593), ‘catholic recupera­tion’ of the Chablais from Protestantism. In 1599, Coadjutor-Bishop of Geneva (with residence in Annecy), and in 1602, he was consecrated Bishop of Geneva. 1604, Jeanne Françoise Frémyot de Chantal (1572-1641) spiri­tual director. In 1610 Visitation (the Visitan­dines) founded for works of charity. Francis’s friendship with Jeanne de Chantal played a crucial role in the mystical development of his spirituality.
A spirituality of love “Francis de Sales led the entire century into the world of devotion and the love of God.” He had personal crisis in 1586 over predestination ante praevisa merita believing he wasn't among the small number of elect. François put away these thoughts from his mind, and in full con­fidence he surrendered to God to the Universal salvific will of God. Like faith in the thought of Martin Luther, the bridge between God and humanity is not provided by faith but by love. “Moreover, the bridge was not supported by God’s grace alone but by human­kind’s innate capacity to love.”
“Introduction à la vie dévote” Formed basis of spiritual exercise, a Bestseller of Everyday spirituality. ... to bring forth the fruits of devotion, according to situation. Devotion must be exercised in different ways by each; adapted to the strength, activities, and duties of each particular person. ... I want to teach people who live in crowded cities within their families, in the middle of domestic cares at home or in the press of public affairs in their professional life ... It’s a mistake, even a heresy, to want to banish the devout life from the soldier’s camp, the manual worker’s workshop, the court of princes, the homes of married people. François understands sanctity in the world, Fuga mundi not necessary. Charity is devotion. Introduction had a familiar tone, stages of this road, forms of prayer, states of life on this way to God. It addresses the ‘beginners’, those who are “still in the lower valley” of spiritual perfection.
Traité de l’Amour de Dieu 1616 Contacts with Jeanne de Chantal deepened his insight into mystical contemplation from the abstract school: From her, he learnt to know simple, contem­plative, non-conceptual prayer, consisting in a simple “remise en Dieu” surrender to God. For Visitations but also lay people, a spirituality attentive to the various states of life. Reformation responded to the question of grace and free will, Luther said Faith alone would turn the trick, this was hope for many who were depending on their own strength and found themselves wanting. But sola fidei raises problems, for example pre-destination versus human freedom.
Anthropological starting point: primacy of the will (starts from a voluntarism, typical the time). Will guides all other capacities, and is identical with love, oriented to God (proper to human nature: optimistic and humanistic view of the human person): No sooner does a man take the trouble to give even a little thought to the godhead than his heart thrills with pleasure – a sure sign that God is God of the human heart. The heart is the center of religious life, enabling us to participate in Love/God. Two ‘exercises’ of love: 1) “complaisance,” com­placence, the affective affirmation and the rejoic­ing in the good of the other. 2) “bien­veillance,” benevolence, the desire of the good for the other. Ecstatic con­form­ity of human and divine will: “sainte indifférence.” Indifference goes beyond resignation, for it loves nothing except for love of God’s will, so that nothing touches the indifferent heart in the presence of God’s will. Holy indifference is total, it relates to everything which is not God. Eliminate what is between person and God: ideas, images, self-centered desires, etc. Reflection on this leads to strange constructions. (Tread the way of heaven to hell. FT) Received from God.
New view on prayer and con­tem­plation. Prayer is a conversation of the soul with God, not a fusion of essences, but a contact between persons. Prayer is called mystical, because of the hidden nature of the con­ver­sa­tion, God and the individual speak heart to heart, and what passes between them can be shared with no one else. Capacity to engage in contemplation without any “enten­de­ment” (understanding) or imagination, transcends mind “suprême pointe”: reached through the illumination of faith. Final stages, core of the mystical experience of God, Francis wrote with help of Chantal, who herself more and more achieved the simplicity of the ultimate “simple regard” of God.
Salesian spirituality No real Salesian school. 1) Jeanne de Chantal, 2) Jean-Pierre Camus (1584-1652), the Bishop of Belley. Enormous influence through many letters, “his influence was every­where.” Open, optimistic guide to loving devotion for all Christians, talent for psychol­ogy. “douceur”: “every­thing through love, nothing through force.” soft progression. “Douceur” towards neighbor characterized the spirit of the Visitation. Obviously, such gentle, lenient approach, with attention for beauty and good­ness, appealed to many, mainly women. Intruduction à la vie dévote thousands of editions in all languages! Now seen as sacchrine. L. J. Rogier, this “dévotion sacrée” turns out to be a “dévotion sucrée”, "loving attention to God." Methodless prayer: Holy Spirit does at it pleases. Pure capacity: yes. "Go to prayer in faith, remain in hope, go out in charity." Live Jesus, Galatians 2, no longer I but Christ. Salesian Spirituality is Catholic Spirituality.

Pierre de Bérulle (1575-1629)

de Sales didn't found anything, no 'salesian school,' but his influence is everywhere. Pierre de Bérulle opposite direction. Works not read, but founded a school - called french school, maybe should be called berullian school
Henri Bremond introduced the term “école française de spiritualité,” the French school of spirituality, founded by Pierre de Bérulle.2 Presently, scholars agree that the term “French school of spirituality” is too general as to represent the specific current of thought, initiated by Bérulle. Often, one gives preference to the characterization “école bérullienne,” “Bérullian school.”

Life and works of Pierre de Bérulle

Born 4 February 1575 of parlia­mentary nobility in the castle of Cérilly, near Troyes (Champagne). classical education in Paris. 1592 Jesuit college of Clermont. Sorbonne. Influences: “milieu dévot”. ‘abstract school’. Rheno-Flemish mysticism.
1599 ordained chaplain at the royal court polemicist against the Protestants. from 1602 french catholic reform. Refused episcopate. Reform of religious life, formation of diocesan priest. Christo­centric direction: “Jésus-Christ seul est fin et moyen en la croix et en l’Eucha­ristie. Là nous devons nous lier à lui comme à notre fin et user de lui comme d’un moyen.”
Introduced Female Carmelites in France (1603) 1601, Avila’s works translated to French, and Madame Acarie heard, and was commissioned in vision to found in France. supported by Sales. resistance at the royal court, François de Sales convinced the Holy See to confirm the establishment in 1603. Bérulle was among three clerics who were appointed as directors of the new order. He established the Carmel in Paris and enabled various Spanish Carmelites to settle in Paris. (Bérulle’s mother, after becoming a widow, entered the monastery, as did Madame Acarie’s daughters, and finally Madame Acarie herself.) Bérulle was particularly connected with Anne de Saint-Barthélemy (1549-1626),5 who became a real spiritu­al counselor for him. Anne introduced him to Teresian spirituality, concentrated on Christ and his humanity.
“Oratoire de Jésus” (1611) reform of the secular clergy. Modeled on Philip Neri’s Oratory. Consulted François de Sales and Jeanne de Chantal, and Vincent de Paul and others. Bérulle declined becoming preceptor of the dauphin Louis XIII. Saw essential role of the priest in salvation. In his Discours de controverse (1609) he stated explicitly: real, authentic faith can only originate from the priestly state of Jesus Christ, from the ordained ministry, from priesthood (and not from the natural talents of human beings).
Theocentrism (of abstract school) towards Christo­centrism, Bérulle attributes “mystical grace,” in 1606. but probably more gradual. Bérulle’s to found congregation of priests. high esteem of priesthood. Christ becomes the divine arche­type of the priest. Priesthood is founded in the Incarnation and the Eucharist (which unites the Son with us, human beings). Origin of the Oratory: formation of priests. types of members: the core group did not accept any bene­fices, the two other did and were bound less strictly. 1613, recognized by Rome. Purpose enlarged: education of priests and seminarians.
The “voeux de servitude” Conflict: 1612, two doctors from the Sorbonne entered, the faculty feared losing students. The Sorbonne was a ‘secular’ faculty and its members were anxious to defend their privileges; religious (such as the Jesuits) had no access to it. Eventually, the Sorbonne deprived the two new Oratorians of their membership rights. conflict with the Jesuits. Bérulle and the Oratory had affini­ties with the spirituality of the Jesuits, although there were different accents (e.g. concerning ecclesiology and the strategy of church reform). Despite these spiri­tual affinities, both separated on a practical issue. Oratory education in competition with the Jesuits. Most impt controversy: “voeux de servitude” (vows of servitude) to Jesus and Mary. idea from Spain, ‘Marian servitude’ and Teresa of Avila: slave of God. 1610, French Carmelites: a vow of servitude to Mary. In 1611, Oratory, a special vow of honor and servitude to Jesus. In 1612, daily dedicate. Participation in Jesus 1613, slaves are in “choeur de Jésus-Christ” (choir of Jesus Christ) and “choeur de Marie”. participate, just like the Apostles, in the intimate life of Jesus.

In 1614, Bérulle imposed the vow of servitude to Mary to some, and later, to all of the Oratorians. In 1615, the Oratory was ordered to take the vow of servitude to Jesus and his divinized humanity. In that same year, Bérulle became the life-long visitator of the French Carmel, and the eternal vow of servitude to Mary was imposed. This vow, however, provoked a serious reaction, particularly from the part of the director of the Spanish Carmelites, who also had the intention to settle in France. He argued that Bérulle, on his own initiative, imposed an additional, fourth vow to the Carmelites. The issue created much controversy. It was submitted, among others, to the theological faculties of Louvain and Douai, which advised negatively on the vow. But for example also Madame Acarie (now Marie de l’Incar­na­tion) protested against it. After Bérulle’s initiative was blamed by Robert Bellarmine, he decided that, in the Carmel and in the Oratory, people should take the vow only as a private person.9


This controversy occasioned a turn in Bérulle’s spirituality. Gradually, he emphasized Christocentric themes and turned away from the abstract school (which he considered too metaphysical). In 1620 there followed a new and sharp attack from the Carmelites, who now even accused Bérulle of heresy (on the basis of a bad copy of the vow of servitude). Eventually, it was decided that the vow should no longer be represented as a mystical initiation for a small group of elected. Rather, it should be considered in line with baptismal spiri­tuality; as such, it could be accepted on the devotional and moral level of “oblation” (dedication of oneself as an offering).


In this tensed atmosphere, Bérulle decided to participate no longer in these polemics, and envisaged to write a theological justification of his thought in general. This plan resulted in his major work, the Discours de l’état et des grandeurs de Jésus, par l’union ineffable de la divinité avec l’humanité et de la dépendance et servitude qui lui est due, et à sa très sainte Mère, ensuite de cet état admirable, published in February 1623.

The “Grandeurs de Jésus” and later works The twelve Discours de l’état et des grandeurs de Jésus demonstrate that for Bérulle the Incarnation is essential. Lose self in the person of Jesus. Central is the notion of “adhérence” – adherence: the human person who, thanks to the grace of the Spirit, is capable of God, can experience the transfusion of Jesus’s being and spiritual activity in himself. Xn spirituality is adhering to the various states (“états”) of Jesus Christ. Later years more simple and human spirituality. He was confronted with numerous tensions, also within the Oratory. In 1626, there was a total break between the Oratory and the Jesuits. Around this time, a cultural crisis was originating, which questioned the tradi­tional truths and beliefs with regard to God, particularly in intellectual circles in Paris. 1624, possibly met René Descartes. Cardinal in 1627. Conflict with Cardinal Richelieu. politically disgraced, depression in his final years. important works: Élévation à Jésus-Christ Notre-Seigneur sur la conduite de son esprit et de sa grâce sur sainte Magde­laine (1627, known under the shorter title Élévation sur sainte Madeleine) and a Vie de Jésus (1629). inspired by Augustine, pessimism and anti-Protestantism. Now, adherence to Christ concentrated on Christ’s state of “victime sacrificielle,” sacrificial victim.
Died 2 October 1629, 1631: Oratory counted 71 houses, among which 21 colleges and 6 seminaries. Since 1621, support of Jansenius, Oratory in Flanders as well. The Carmel 43 houses in the year of his death. Pope Urban VIII is reported to have given to Pierre de Bérulle the title of “Apostle of the Incarnate Word.”

Bérulle’s Theology and Spirituality

language and style lyrical style, eloquence, pathos, particularly appreciated by his contemporaries. Moderns find it difficult, hard, and even tedious. But lyrics gain more than argumentation. No more than exclamations, expressing admira­tion for the divine mysteries. An example:

Ô union! ô communication de Dieu en ce mystère ineffable! ô amour! ô vie de Dieu en ce sacré mystère de vie et d’amour! ô vie! ô amour de l’homme en Dieu! ô grandeur! ô sainteté de Dieu en ce très haut et très saint mystère!

What does this cascade of words creates a kind of “bruit de fond.” Superabundance of words paradoxically gives birth to a silence in which mystical contemplation develops. Theological reflections continuously ‘inter­rupted’, or concluded by passages like the one quoted above: these are “élévations.” “contemplative-reverential.” Adequate words to express the mystery of God’s encounter with the human soul. ‘reflex’ kind of thinking. Same style in french secular literature.
Motivation Those who contemplate a rare and excellent object are pleasantly surprised by the astonishment and admiration they experience at the first sight of that object, even before they recognize in detail the particularities of the subject they are contemplating. Further­more, this astonishment, which appears to cause a weakness in the soul, gives it strength and vigor. For the soul draws strength from its weakness, elevating itself to a greater light and to a higher and more perfect knowledge. This same thing happens to us when we first behold and think of the excellence, the rarity and uniqueness of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the sacred mys­tery of the Incar­na­tion. Because we are deeply and tenderly touched by the grandeur of this rare object, [...] we believe we should lift ourselves to God and praise him in this unique work of his, waiting until later to reflect more on the state and grandeurs of Jesus and to penetrate the secrets and the depth of this most exalted mystery.
Emerging from a deep, dark cave, finds one­self on a high mountain and beholding the sun for the first time. Seeing this sun as a serene, beautiful day breaks over our hemi­sphere, decorating and embellishing the universe and enlivening it with its light and rays. Feel the need to honor God without taking type for analysis....
So, we leave earth to contemplate the true Sun of the world.... We are taken aback in astonishment and infatu­ated with love and admiration at the first brightness, the first sight of this splendor. We interrupt our discourse to approach God and contemplate. Let us try to enter with reverence and love into his clarity, rather than enter by clarity into his love.
Thompson: “Theology becomes prayer and prayer becomes theology; learning slides into adoration, and adoration slides into the ‘servitude’ of theological analysis.... Elevations keep the theology humble, open to a stance of adoration and transcendence. They break the theolo­gian out of himself or herself, as it were.” This is adopted by Germans and English. At the same time there was dry scholasticism.
Themes and procedures of the Grandeurs de Jésus. in a fashion of Augustinian ‘contemplation’, “science des saints.” Bérulle himself called it “théologie mystique”: mystical theology.
Preliminary: Bérulle and Pseudo-Dionysius Augustinian mysticism, with Neo-Platonic accents. Hierarchical ascension, the soul will have access to the “chorus Jesu” and the “chorus Mariae.” Oratorians and Carmelites had to become “familiers,” familiar with Jesus and Mary; they should enter their “home,” so to speak, which, obviously, remains a desire and an aspiration. Those who join that choir, are, through the mediation of Mary, illuminated by the incarnate Word. Diony­sius’s image of God, who, like a sun, expresses himself in the various orders of the heavenly hierarchy, is transferred by Bérulle to the Christological plan.

In his later works, Bérulle makes less (or at least more freely) use of this Dionysian terminology. The notion of choir is still present – but the “chorus Jesu” receives a special function: it must honor the Incarna­tion. Christ becomes the center, and more precisely: Christ as a human being, who does not need the media­tion of the angels (which means that humanity becomes superior to the angels). Therefore: although Bérulle cannot be under­stood without the Diony­sian back­ground, it remains a framework, it is a diffuse Dionysianism. We should keep in mind that, in this period, the notion of hierarchy was common use. But also by his emphasis on the will, more than on illumination, and on “abnéga­tion,” renunciation of the self, instead of mystical passivity, Bérulle is thinking more in an Ignatian than in a Dionysian fashion.


The transition from an abstract to a Christological mysticism is visible when we consider Bérulle’s exposition on God, which is the founda­­­tion of his thought. On this basis, he develops a theology which supports his spirituality.

A Theology of the Incarnation

“integration of theology and spirituality, and the coincidence of this integrated knowledge around the Word Incarnate.”14
God is Unity and Trinity Because of God’s transcendence, the human person can reach God only when he abandons every image, and renounces himself. Contemplate God, concentrate on God only, conform yourself to God’s.

1. God is Unity which embraces the whole of creation and the Incarnation. ainsi Dieu, qui est unité, conduit tout à l’unité et, par degrés distincts d’unités, vient et descend jusques à l’homme, et l’homme va et monte jusques à Dieu, et, enfin, arrive jusques à la jouis­sance de l’unité suprême et primitive de la divine essence. Unity is known by revelation. Hence, Bérulle sometimes uses very anthro­pomorphic expressions. He is original in distinguishing three subsequent unities in God (which can be reached by contemplation): essential unity (“unité d’essence”), which is divinity (“divinité”), unity of love (“unité d’amour”), which is the Trinity, and unity of “subsistence” (‘person’), which is the Incarnation. Trinity is about Love / relationship.


2. God is Trinity. their proper role to play (here we see the inspiration of Greek Patrology):


– Father “source de la divinité,” the divine source from which every initiative proceeds (referring to Pseudo-Dionysius, Bérulle speaks of the “Déité fontale,” the fontal deity).


– Son (Incarnation, Word) is the substantial knowledge the Father has of God self. Also, the Word is the image of the Father, “image du Père en sa personne divine.”


– Spirit is mutual knowledge of Father and Son develops, the Spirit connects both = love.


God acts by plan, as a cause and “exemplaire” for everything which proceeds from God, for the whole of the universe.

God’s unity = plurality “Dieu sociétaire.” Father = source. Word = image and self-knowl­edge of the Father. Spirit = love that unites the divine persons. Cette communication primitive et éternelle de la Divinité, féconde dedans soi-même, est la cause et l’exemplaire de la commu­ni­ca­tion temporelle que Dieu fait de soi-même, hors de soi-même, à notre humanité au mystère de l’Incar­nation, lequel est comme une imita­tion expresse et comme une étendue, jusques dans l’être créé, de la commu­ni­ca­tion suprême et ineffable qui est dans l’être incréé entre les trois personnes de la Très sainte Trinité.

The Father holds the initiative, the Word incarnates and constitutes humanity’s relation with God, the Spirit unites both natures of Christ. Relation is exemplaric and is realized in baptismal perspective: every baptized Christian is called to live in relation with God, by adhering to the various states of Christ.

The central significance of the Incarnation In the Grandeurs de Jésus the Incarnation is central: “le suprême des oeuvres de la Divinité,” the supreme work of divinity. This is the Copernican revolution of Pierre de Bérulle: An excellent mind of this age claimed that the sun and not the earth is at the center of the world. He maintained that it is stationary and that the earth, in conformity with its round shape, moves in relation to the sun. [...] This new opinion, which has little following in the science of the stars, is useful and should be followed in the science of salvation. For Jesus is the sun.

With this revolutionary shift, everything is, so to speak, turned upside down. It is the incarnated God who sets everything in motion; it is a human being who rules over humans and angels. Since the Incarnation, the system of heavenly hierarchies does no longer count. Henceforth, God is revealed through the incarnate Word. Jesus Christ has become the essential mediator.


For Bérulle, the Incarnation is of an absolute singularity: Jesus “est, lui seul, un monde et un grand monde,” “un monde visible et intelligible, et arché­type”: he is a visible and intelligible, archetypal world. In this new order, the three orders of the universe, the worlds of nature, grace and glory, are unified. This new order is the hypostatic union, it is unique, since it is the only subject who is both divine and human, the God-Man. In the Incarnation, God himself becomes the internal focus, the ordering principle of all things, of the world.

Hypostatic union (the “substance” of the mystery) central place in Bérulle’s vision. In Jesus Christ, the person is divine Word. Jesus’s human nature does not exist in itself, through the Incarnation, the human nature ‘renounces’ its human subsistence, and adopts, takes up the subsistence of the divine nature, the Logos. This is the secret of the Incarnation: it is to strip the humanity of Jesus of its own ordinary subsistence, so that it could be clothed with a subsistence, foreign and out of the ordinary for his nature, divided and separated from its own sub­sistence, which it had the right to possess and from which it finds itself happily deprived at the moment of its production. Thus, Jesus’s humanity is intimately associated with Trinitarian life. One person in two natures, (God is born, who lives, travels, dies...). Enhypostasis. Human nature = all the good stuff, human nature before the fall, but then why? Sin as aversion from God is opposite to the basis of incarnation which is about relationship. dq humans are "fundamentally flawed," in fact if not in principle. But this isn't included in the notions of human nature that is assumed. But what is not assumed is not saved. (Gregory Naz.) This is christology from above. Incarnation is often seen as in view of salvation, but Scotus says it might have happened without sin - God wants to communicate love. Divinity is the basis of existence, Christ renounces his humanity as the basis of his life and is taken into God. We can do this too.


The “états de Jésus” (the “économie” of the mystery) In Incarnation, God’s salvation plan is connected with an historical fact. the “états du Verbe incarné,“ the states of the Word incarnate. Every act of Jesus, every moment of his life is a mystery. But (contrary to previous traditions, also to Ignatius) Bérulle considers these states of Jesus’s life not merely as meditation themes or examples; rather, they are eternal realities, always present, a permanent source of grace. Fundamental states are the following: Trois états de Jésus: ... celle qu’il reçoit du Père éternel, celle qu’il fait à notre humanité, celle qu’il fait à son Église et à ses fidèles; c’est-à-dire trois communica­tions distinctes: de son essence en la Trinité, de sa personne en l’Incar­nation, et de son corps en l’Eucharistie qui contient ces trois mystères différentes.

States of Jesus
state	Jesus'	medium	relation	status
divine	essence	Trinity	received from Father	eternal
divine-human	person	Incarnation	connected with humanity	permanent
sacramental	body	Eucharist	unified with church and Xns	until the end of the world

“états” are internal state of Jesus, a permanent disposition in Christ’s human soul. “State” can be con­ceived as an eternal reality, because this life is assumed by a divine person. Spiritual ‘imitation’ of Christ possible.

“adorateur,” adorer of God. Jesus is the “perfect adorer of God,” the “infinite adorer of an infinite God.” He can be the perfect adorer through the hypostatic union, because the subject of adoration (the one who adores) is the God-Man, who has a unique relation with the object of adoration, the Trinitarian God. From all eternity there had been a God infinitely adorable, but still there had not been an infinite adorer. ...You are now, O Jesus, this adorer [...] from now on we have a God served and adored without any defect in this adora­tion, and a God who adores, without detract­ing from his divinity! = Motive of incarnation.
Infancy In the womb, speaks of exceptional importance of Mary, first and most perfect Christian. Divine filiation includes the idea of divine maternity. Model for the way we should enter into Jesus’s life.
“abaissement” God is made human, in order to make us, human beings, divine: it is a chain of love. Theosis.

Christian Spirituality

Incarnation has important conse­quences for the conception of spirituality. Spirituality is no longer conceived as the personal sanctification of the human person, but rather as the assumption of the human by the divine. Before sketching the features of Bérulle’s spirituality, we first characterize his view on the human person.
Anthropology of Pierre de Bérulle The human being is a “néant,” nothing. “abaissement” (debasement) pessimism, with Augustinian accents (not unusual in his days). The Incarnation = “réparation.” experience of human misery. The human person is ambiguous: “Il est miracle d’une part et de l’autre un néant.” The human person is a miracle as well as nothing. But also Human beings are capable of God. The human person is destined for grace (this distinguishes human beings from other creatures). We are ‘relational’ creatures: our being is a relation with God. Relation is constitutive for being. Rela­tion of depen­dence = master and servant.
Assessment of this anthropology – Anti-humanism. pessimistic anthropology, typical for the early 17th century and, to a certain extent, e.g. for François de Sales. Bérulle insists on the futility, the ‘nothingness’ of human beings without God (even if the hypothesis is absurd). This distin­guishes him from the optimism of the humanists. The human person can be divinized, but only by abandoning himself. There is no continuity between God and human beings. In this sense, Bérulle is an anti-humanist.

– Humanism. Yet, a certain optimism. Creation show the marks of God. The whole world is taken up in a movement, an inclination of creation towards God. Concrete, real human beings are not completely separated from God. Here again, human sin has little place in Bérulle’s thought. His anti-humanism is theological; but, just as well, it can be called a Christological humanism. The human person who adheres to Christ is divinized, because through the Incarnation, “la déification suprême de la nature humaine,” nothing less than a “déification de l’humanité” is made possible. In the state of servitude, the human person lives in Christ and reaches his destiny. In this sense, the human person can be exalted and become a miracle, a “nouvel univers,” a masterpiece of creation.

The internal contradiction through which the human person is being thorn can only be lifted in a new order, created by the Word incarnate. This is a gift of grace that makes the relation between God and humanity – we are made gods by grace, just like Christ is God by nature.

“Adhérer aux états de Jésus” Adherence is the voca­tion of all Christians, beginning with baptism: to enter into the “états,” the states of the Word incarnate. conform to the inner life of Jesus, more than mere external imitation of Christ. Imitate adoration of God.
“renoncement,” repudiation of one’s self, self-denial. The achievement of this renunciation requires “anéantissement,” self-denial by ascesis. To become “néant,” nothing, is a condition for being able to receive God. Later, “abnégation,” self-abnegation. privation of subsistence, partial destruction of their own, human nature. “Mortification.” insofar as nature affected by sin. : “Je veux qu’il n’y a plus de moi en moi...” (I wish that there is no more I in me...): that is adherence to Christ. The vow of servitude is the best expression of the spirituality of adherence.
Primary: “adoration,” elevation, praise of God. Adora­tion means total submission before the excellence and dignity of God. “anéantissement,” surrender of oneself before God’s greatness. No more of me in me. Adoration turns entirely to the other (more than love), also more than love.
Jesus as the perfect adorer of God, we enter into a spiritua­lity of adoration. This adoration is rooted in love. “anéantissement” and self-abnegation, is only the reverse of the mystery of the Incarnation. The other side is nothing less than the divinization, the deification of humanity (see John of the Cross). Thanks to the Incarnation, every­thing human can be divinized.

The Eucharist and the Priesthood

Eucharist As indicated above, the Eucharist is one of the three ‘mysteries’ of the Christian faith, next to the Trinity and the Incarnation. In the Eucharist, God confers on us his grace, his spirit and his divinity. We saw that the ‘Eucharistic state’ is one of the most important states that Bérulle ascribes to Christ.

Furthermore, through him, as if with a strong and powerful chain, the eternal Father exalts us and draws us up to heaven, even to the heaven of the Godhead. ... It is a divine and inviolable chain of unity and charity; the charity of the Father and the Son toward humanity and the unity of the Father with the Son in the Trinity; the unity of the Son with human nature in the Incarnation and the unity of the Body of Jesus Christ with us in the Eucharist. ... It is a chain made up of the three mysteries, like sacred and divine bonds, like admirable and strong links by which the eternal Father, drawing us to himself, lifts us up forever into the heaven­ly reign whose king is Trinity, whose law is charity and whose measure is eternity.


The third link (next to the Trinitarian relation and the hypostatic union) in the chain which connects humanity with God, is the Eucharist. The Eucharist con­nects the body of Christ with us, human persons, and this connection is not merely external. Rather, it is the presence of the living body of the Son of God in our own, mortal bodies, through Holy Communion. This gives us access to an extra­ordinary communication with the divine, we can participate in the triune life of God. More­over, in the Eucharist the Spirit holds a central place. Whereas, in the Trinity, God the Father is honored, and, in the Incar­na­tion, God the Son, in the Eucharist, the Spirit is invocated. It is the Spirit who transforms the ‘species’, bread and wine, into the body and blood of the Son. Christ is present in the ‘Sacrament of the Altar’, and this present Christ is the object of Eucharistic adoration: in the Eucharist, we honor Christ. This is the theological basis for the Eucharistic devotion to the Blessed Sacrament.


The union of Christ and human beings in the Eucharist is made possible by the priest (who administers the sacrament in persona Christi). The priest renders Christ present in the Eucharist. But the Eucharist also unites Christ with those who communicate him: the priests.

Priesthood special importance of priest­hood. “école française” represents a specific spirituality of priesthood. shares with his contemporaries restoration of the dignity. Hierarchic vision priest at the top, superior to religious - minister grace to the faithful. No real theology of the priesthood, just dignity, apart from minisry. Through ordination, the priest enters into a special state of adherence to Jesus Christ, the divine archetype of the priest. Priest is ‘collaborator’ of God, also parti­cipates in Christ’s role as a mediator, communicates the knowledge of God to others. Hierarchy of sanctity which has pride of place. e.g. Mary. Mary Magdalene: through her love she knows Christ, apostle to the apostles.

We should not forget that the restoration of the priesthood was, in Bérulle’s vision, only part of a more comprehensive reform. He did not write a tractate on the priesthood. In his view, the most important was: inner life and prayer. Such a spirit of prayer, for example, relieved Bérulle from the necessity to impose canonical vows to the Oratory: the priests had to be united spiritually with Christ. The specificity of the priestly state consists in the care of souls, spiritual direction: this was the most important activity of the Oratorians. Bérulle’s theology of the priesthood is not original. Essential is his spiritual approach, the idea that the priest participates in a specific way in the priesthood of Christ, and, in so doing, honors the Incarnation.

Conclusion No theological system fully satisfies Bérulle; uses contradictory systems; felt failure of scholastic theology; adoration; mystical theology; interiorization.

The Bérullian Current

Further development of spirituality in 17th-century France. ‘French school’ of spirituali­ty. In many spiritual writers the influence of Pierre de Bérulle is present, but the adoption of elements from his spirituality is flexible, new emphases are made, etc. We will consider the main themes of Bérulle’s spiritual theology as starting points, as orienta­tions for many particularities of catholic spirituality and devotion in this period. None of them actually started with Bérulle: they existed already a long time before this period, but they were stimulated by Bérullianism, and in later developments we can discover numerous referen­ces to Bérulle. Among particularities in the evolution of spirituality to which Bérulle and his ‘school’ contribu­ted and which were further developed and popularized by others, we can mention: the devotion to the Infancy of Jesus; Marian spirituali­ty; spiri­tuality of the Eucha­rist, particularly adoration of the Blessed Sacra­ment; priestly spirituality, etc.
Imprecise influence: not really interested in the foundation of congregation, mystical theology. Works forgotten. From 1640’s aversion against mystical literature; writing appeared anachronistic, disciples carried on his thought: Louis Cognet distinguishes three categories of writers in the ‘Bérullian’ current: the ‘guardians’ of Bérullianism, those who developed Bérulle’s thought, and authors who adapted Bérullianism. We will present the major representa­tives of these ‘Bérullian’ writers.

The French Carmel

Madeleine de Saint-Joseph (Made­lei­ne de Fontaines-Marans, 1578-1637), intimate to Bérulle as his disciple and adviser; involved in the foundation of the Oratoire in 1611; inspired Élévation sur sainte Madeleine. Wrote: a Vie de Soeur Catherine de Jésus. Jésus (1589-1623) mystic with preference for infancy of Jesus. preparation for adoration of Jesus Christ. I give myself totally to the interior annihilation which this holy and divine infancy of Jesus wishes to produce in me. I am happy that it annihi­lates me, and I desire to be no more than a capacity for the infancy of Jesus, filled up with it, possessed by it and totally made alive by it, so that I am able to say really: I live, not me, but the infancy of Jesus in me. (Margue­rite du Saint-Sacrement (Marguerite Parigot, 1619-1648)). numerous ecstasies; founded “famille du saint Enfant Jésus.”
Adoration of Jesus’s infancy, dependence, obedience contemplation of Trinity. Shifted to child’s purity and innocence. Sophisticated spiri­tuality of Bérulle became a popular piety, >> Holy Family. simple affective.

The Oratory

Promoted Bérulle’s thought.
François Bourgoing (1585-1662) expansion of the Oratory, including Oratory in Flanders: Louvain, Maubeuge and Meche­len. 1641, the third superior general of the Oratory (succeeding Charles de Condren), legis­lative organization, promotion of clergy. Published Bérulle’s Oeuvres com­plètes. Explained as well. “servitude” = baptism. Adherence of the soul to Jesus, renunciation of the self: “hostie” (“état de consécration”) = “victime” (“état de mort”); “Jésus comme hostie.” (original meaning of “hostia”: expiatory sacrifice). Bérulle’s thought more accessible for the common reader; unified and cohe­rent. reduced its complexity and its inner dyna­mics. Jesus is our example and archetype, and we are his images, he is the sun and we are his rays, he is the foun­tain and we are his trickles, he is the vine and we are his branches. So we must adore this filia­tion of Jesus as the exemplar of the adoption of the children of God, and as the source and cause of all their grace, just like our adoptive filiation is an image and an imitation of that natural filiation.
Guil­laume Gibieuf (ca. 1580-1650) Bérulle’s confidant. Spiritual direc­tion of the Female Carmelites. La vie et les grandeurs de la très sainte Vierge Marie, Mère de Dieu (1637). Mary, the Mother of Christ strange to us. Archetype preexists in the mind of God, predestination of Jesus includes, predestination of Mary. “second Trinity,” consisting of God, Jesus and Mary: Mary can be considered as the spouse of the Father (in classical theology, of the Spirit). “états de Marie”. Mary is the model for Christians, supplants devotion to Christ. Recent dogmas proclaimed follow this, characterized catholic devotion before VCII.

Charles de Condren (1588-1641)

“Mystic of the Oratory.” Impt figure; spiritual leader; rejects worldliness. Heart broke his ribs. “le courant néantiste.” Mystic and spiritual figures emphasized the culpa­bil­ity, nothing­ness, worthlessness of the world (particularly the body, human desire, etc.). Mortificati­on and self-abnega­tion. Return to Neo-Platonic and Dionysian mysticism. Condren sees an unbridgeable, metaphysical abyss which separates God from the world; incompatible; no contact without annihilation. Essential worthlessness of human; so go to “néant,” to nothingness (a conditi­on which is even aggravated by human sin); “anéan­tis­sement” = self-destruction = honor God. This is where Christ comes in to do it right for us. Jesus comes into the world to sacrifice, to annihilate himself. Là où il y a sacrifice, il faut qu’il y ait une hostie; d’où Dieu a pensé à faire la créature, afin de faire d’elle et de son Fils une personne qui fût bien son hostie, qui lui fût offerte en sacrifice et immolée pour le glorifier. For Condren, love for God existed as com­munity with “Jésus-Christ hostie,” which meant: denial of one’s ‘nothing­ness’ (“anéan­tisse­ment”), destruction of the “old Adam” in the human person.
For Bérulle, adherence creates in human beings a capacity for God, for Con­dren, adherence leads to the destruction of human nothingness. For Bérulle, the human person is a “néant” exalted by relation with God, for Con­dren, the person reaches God by annihilation. Adher­ence is anti-intellectualistic; it surpasses any rationality, incomprehensible, ineffable.
Condren’s vision of the human (in)capacity to approach God, pessimistic From 1640 on, Bérullianism was understood by many through the interpretation of Condren: mortification, human beings are basically determined by sin, sacrificial understanding of Eucharistic devotion: popularized by Jean-Jacques Olier and Jean Eudes.

Vincent de Paul (1581-1660)

Very Influential: ‘Monsieur Vincent’; not a member of the Oratory, but knew the circles. Insight: authentic spirituali­ty could be accompanied with apostolic action, especially Charity. Ordained 1600. 1608 knew de Bérulle who introduced him to General de Gondi. In 1617, he founded the “Con­frérie de la Charité:” pious lay­women assist poor and sick.
Read de Sales’s Traité de l’Amour de Dieu, met him and Jeanne de Chantal. Superior of visitandines. Founded “Société ou Commu­nauté des Prêtres de la Mission,” 1632, Saint-Lazare in Paris; Congregation of the Mission (Congregatio Missionis); Lazarists. Fourth vow: service to the poor and stimulate their spiritual life. Worked for formation of the clergy; 2 week retreat before minor ordinations; and weekly “Conférences de mardi” (Tuesday Conferen­ces). 1633 with Louise de Marillac (1591-1660), he founded the “Filles de la Charité” (Daughters of Charity), without any clausura working for sick and of foundlings (hundreds a year) (1637-1638: “Oeuvre des Enfants-Trouvés”). Key works charitable works and formation of the clergy; spirituality to action, drew from Bérulle, de Sales, de Canfield; poor are “nos seigneurs et nos maîtres” (our lords and masters). Virtues of Jesus: to live a life of obedience, poverty, humility, love for the poor. Vous verrez par la foi que le Fils de Dieu, qui a voulu être pauvre, nous est représenté par ces pauvres; qu’il n’avait presque pas la figure d’un homme en sa passion, et qu’il passait pour fou dans l’esprit des Gentils, et pour pierre de scandale dans celui des Juifs, et avec tout cela, il se qualifie l’évangéliste des pau­vres.
Christocentric spirituality concentrates on Jesus’s poverty; = option for the poor is not merely compassion, but a true spiritual experience. Imitate Jesus' simplicity, humility, “douceur,” morti­fi­cation, zealous care for the poor. Pessimistic anthropology: renunciation, mortification; From Bérulle, Eucharistic devotion to Jesus, from François de Sales, a charitable solidarity.

Jean-Jacques Olier (1608-1657)

One of the first ordinands in Vincent’s retreats (1633). In 1635, switched spiritual director to Charles de Condren; still worked with Vincent de Paul. 1639-1641 serious neurotic depression; scruples; way out of the crisis was self-denial; turn to the other; humility to the point of self-contempt. L’humilité est l’amour de l’abjection due à notre état de néant et de péché. Et il n’y a point de mépris, d’abjection, de confusion, que le néant et le péché ne méritent. Jugez par là jusqu’à quel point d’abjec­­tion et de mépris nous sommes réduits. Et c’est ce que l’humi­­lité nous fait aimer. C’est pourquoi, si on n’aime pas à être méprisé, oublié, mésestimé, rebuté, tenu pour néant, foulé aux pieds, si on ne peut souffrir d’être injurié, souffleté, fouetté, cruci­fié, tourmenté en toutes manières, ainsi que Jésus portant nos péchés l’a été, nous ne sommes pas humbles autant que nous le devons être. Extremely pessi­mistic fashion, acceptance of one’s nothingness, self-hatred? “Perhaps what we need to do is to read Olier dialectically, as we read many of the other great mystics. We are both sinner and saved, in need of anéantissement and filled with grace, and the latter to the extent that we are ‘participating in all the mysteries of Jesus Christ.’”(Thompson)
Writings La Journée chrétienne (1655); a Catéchisme chrétien pour la vie intérieure (1656); Introduction à la vie et aux vertus chrétiennes (1657), his most impor­tant spiritual work. Olier concentrates spiritual life on the praise of God by Christ. “religion de Jésus-Christ” = adoration and praise of God = Jesus’s divinity is immediately contemplated; “l’intérieur de Jésus,” the ‘interior’ of Jesus, which escapes external sight. Annihilate ourselves: “anéantissement” = adhere to Jesus’s sacrifice = “converti en hostie,” converted into host-victim. For by his intimate presence in us and through his consuming fire, he brings us to communicate in the most perfect state of his religion, which is to be a host consumed for the glory of God.
“méthode sulpicienne,” the Sulpician method. O Jesus living in Mary, Come and live in thy servants, In the spirit of thy sanctity, In the fullness of thy strength, In the perfection of thy ways, In the truth of thy virtues, In the communion of thy mysteries, Be Lord over every opposing power, In thine own Spirit, to the glory of the Father, Amen.
Three points 1) to look at Jesus: religion and adoration, eyes and spirit, 2) to unite ourselves to Jesus: union and communion, heart and affections, and 3) to act in Jesus: cooperation, hands and deeds. Very big with priests for generations. Church of Saint-Sulpice beautiful and great bookshop.
Saint-Sulpice Reform of priests urgent in 1640s. December 1641, started a seminary at Vaugirard near Paris, following year transferred to the parish Saint-Sulpice in Paris, where Olier was appointed, “maison apostolique.” Seminary with spiritual formation. Le but premier et dernier de cet institut sera de vivre souve­rai­ne­ment pour Dieu dans le Christ Jésus Notre Seigneur, de telle sorte que l’intérieur de son Fils pénètre l’intime de notre coeur et qu’il soit permis à chacun de dire ce que saint Paul affirmait, pour son compte, avec confiance: “Ce n’est plus moi qui vis, c’est le Christ qui vit en moi” (Gal 2,20). Telle sera chez tous l’unique espérance et l’unique pensée, tel aussi le seul exercice: vivre intérieurement de la vie du Christ et la manifester en actes dans notre corps mortel. Olier’s life work; he did not assign to priests any particular, unique virtues; but role requires spirituality: Tous doivent paraître comme Jésus Christ parfait, comme Jésus Christ hostie de son Père, Jésus Christ consacré et dévoué à Dieu, [...]. Et les clercs en font profession publique, et profession de vouloir imiter Jésus-Christ en qualité d’hostie vouée et consacrée à Dieu. Saw key role of sincere priests.
Louis Tronson and the “Traité des saints ordres” (1676)
Traité des saints ordres par Monsieur Olier prêtre, ancien curé de la paroisse de S. Sulpice de Faux-bourg S. Germain à Paris, Instituteur, Fonda­teur et premier Supérieur du Séminaire de S. Sulpice. Spiritual manual published by Louis Tronson (1622-1700), the third superior general of Saint-Sulpice. Tronson edited and filled out. Only in 1984, a critical edition of the Traité was published, in which these changes, adaptations, shifts in emphasis were indicated. The Traité was true to the spirit of Olier, but in its final shape corresponded to the mind of Tronson.
Clericalization added by Tronson: 1) From mystical acceptance of grace to ascetical effort Olier did not neglect the importance of asceticism, but he always gave priority to the reception of (baptismal) grace, which enables and requires mortification. Tronson gives more emphasis on personal asceticism than on grace of God. Separation and rejection of the world Olier sees opposition between life of the world and life of the spirit. So separation from the world is important, but not an opposition to the world which Tonson introduced. Tronson's vision of the world is extremely negative; you should despise the world, be blind to its beauty and its vanities, but also its values. Tronson reduces the priest almost exclusively to the man of prayer, of penitence, of the mass and the Eucharistic sacrifice. The place of religion Olier, focuses on the virtue of religion, render homage, adores and glorifies God. Tronson focusses on the apostolic dimension of religion. For Tronson the priest becomes a man of religious exercises, and no longer, as for Bérulle and Olier, a man of religion in general. The importance of the bishop devalued as social promotion, priesthood as spiritual vocation. The relation between the clerical state and the baptismal condition
In the Bérullian tradition, priests must exhibit an exemplaric holiness, based on the general baptismal vocation to a holy life. Tronson exalts the clerical state by subtle changes in Olier’s texts, suppressing common christianity; he replaces “Christians” with “priest.” Priestly privilege. Efforts to reform priesthood went overboard.
The model of the “bon prêtre” Examens particu­liers, (1690). the line of Ignatius: particular sin, virtue of Christ, priestly perfection, every daily activity was treated, virtues and vices, mortification, charity, and so on, always in a very concrete manner. Image of the priest, an ideal portrait of the good clergyman, “modestie,” modesty, “pudeur” (shame), self-discipline, moderation, avoidance of extreme attitudes, ‘neutrality’, detached from the world; the world is a hostile place, separation from unwashed masses, the greatest enemy is woman (the “personne de différent sexe”): miso­gyny, a veritable fear for women, was characteristic for many clergymen in this period (a remnant of the struggle against concubinage of priests?). Excessively focussed on behavior. Ministry excessively cultic. Related to general cultural movement: progressive interiorization of passion and desire: “désynchronisation” between the masses and the cultural elite appeared. Louis XIV imposed rules on aristocracy confined to court, the whole of society had to be ‘civilized’ by adopting the courtly behavior, detailed rules. Edification. 1) First, a ‘domestication’, a control of the body: “pudeur” (don’t touch anybody!); all cor­poreal functions are privatized. Personal value determined by clothes and behavior. 2) Passions to be controlled: the ideal of neutrality, or self-effacement of the priest is the spiritualized version of the social obligation to ‘dominate’ human passion. Suppressed emotions and desire. The poor, the beggars, the drifters are imprisoned, reformed. Likewise Church seeks to control non-conformists, those who don't follow the rules. Also Priests were spiritual aristocracy. Growing aversion for mysticism in the course of the 17th century. Modern man aimed at self-control; this tendency did not leave much place to mysticism. Neither State nor Church were willing to admit phenom­ena and currents which by their eccen­tricity drifted into the margins of society and jeopardized established morals, dogma, institutions. Asceticism is much easier to control.
“bon prêtre,” model for generations of priests, up into the 20th century, mediator between God and man, and his priestly ministry is ultimately based on the divine priesthood of Jesus Christ. It is against this model of priesthood that recent authors reacted. As in many other things, here too, the basic shift is located in Vatican II, where this model was corrected by a new emphasis on the baptismal charisma of all believers, and by the stress on a com­pre­hensive under­standing of ministry, not just in its priestly, but also in its pastoral and prophetic function: “leadership of the community (pastoral func­tion), liturgical worship (priestly function) and proclama­tion of the gospel (prophetic function).” Growing clericalization.

Jean Eudes (1601-1680)

Jean Eudes reflects an new generation in the current of renewal in French Catholicism. In 1623 he entered the Oratoire, (under Bérulle and Condren). 1625 ordained. In Caen he developed his activi­ties as a missionary, a preacher, and a spiritual director. Close to the Spirituality of Charles de Condren. 1637 - La vie et le royaume de Jésus dans les âmes chrétiennes. Spirituality for every circumstance in daily life, Christian virtues and devotions. Bérullian themes present, synthesized for all Christians; especially emphasized the idea of sacrifice, host-victim.
The “Congrégation de Jésus et de Marie” organizing spiritual exercises for the local priests; a semi­nary plan. In 1643, foun­dation of the “Congré­gation de Jésus et de Marie,” known as the congre­gation of the Eudists. Shortly after, Eudes was excluded from the Oratory.
‘Broad’ conception of the priesthood: fundamentally, there is only one priesthood: the priesthood of Jesus Christ forming com­plete communion between God and humanity. Renewed by priests, of the baptized and ordained. The sacer­dotal ministry was exalted (e.g. by applying qualities of all the baptized to priests, who possessed them in a ‘more perfect’, ‘more excellent’ way). Eudes expressed this in rather extreme sentences, in which priests were presented as associates of the trinity. led to a clericalization of the priest­hood. Eudists: specialized in the formation of the clergy; opposed to Jansenism.

The Devotion to the Sacred Heart

17th Century: devotion to the Sacred Heart received decisive incentives and new orientations. Popularized under the influence of Marguerite-Marie Alacoque. First Heart of Mary: an office and a mass, which were first celebrated in 1648. Then, he composed a liturgy for the feast of the Heart of Jesus Christ, which was first celebrated in 1672.
Historical Background
Roots in biblical and patristic spirituality. Life-giving water from the rock who is Christ, and of the blood and water from the pierced side of Jesus on the cross: represented the birth of the church and the gift of the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist. (Augus­tine: by the piercing of Jesus’s side, “the door of life was opened to us, through which come all the sacraments of the Church”). Middle Ages this ‘objective’ theology of the Fathers developed towards a devotion for the wounded heart of Jesus; growing personal, subjective character of spirituality, (e.g. Bernard of Clairvaux). In the 13th century, Luitgard of Tongeren, Gertrude the Great (of Helfta). Physical heart of Jesus, but which, being human and divine, is the instrument of the union between the triune God and humanity. Passion, stigmata of Francis of Assisi, 1224; five wounds further developed in the 14th-15th centuries; wound in the side of Jesus became popular, and this was connected with the Heart of Jesus (Bonaventure: “The Heart of our Lord was pierced with a lance, that by the visible wound we might recognize the invisible love. The outward wound of the Heart shows the soul’s wound of love”). Modern times picked up by the Jesuits. 16th century, it was popular in France, Spain and Italy. Promoted by François de Sales and Jeanne de Chantal in their spirituality of love – this is the point of contact where the contribution of Jean Eudes can be situated.

“Le Coeur admirable de la Très Sacrée Mère de Dieu”

1. physical organ, the “material and bodily heart,” the most noble part of the human body, “the source of life” affections and passions.
   

2. “the memory” (“put it in your heart” = remem­ber).
   

3. Seat of meditation discursive reasoning of our intellect about the things of God.”
   

4. human soul, “the free will of the superior and reasonable part of the soul,” which is “the queen of the other faculties.”
   

5. “the highest point of the soul, which the theologians call the point of the spirit” which is “the seat of contemplation.”
   

   6.“the whole interior of man,” that is, “all that pertains to the soul and the interior of spiritual life.”
   

6. “the divine Spirit, the heart of the Father and the Son, which they wish to give us to be our spirit and our heart.”
   

7. “The Son of God is called the heart of the eternal Father” in the Bible, and the Son is also “soul of our soul, heart of our heart.”
   

   We must know that just as we adore in God three hearts, which are in fact a single heart, and just as we adore in the Man-God three hearts, which are one and the same heart, so also we honor in the Mother of God three hearts, which are a single heart.: 1 The physical heart is the corporeal organ, but understood (within an Aristotelian anthropology) as the principle of life, of love, all passions (see meaning 1 above). 2 Spiritual heart symbolizes human interior­ity and love, and the capacity to contemplation (2-6). 3 The divine heart represents God living in the human being (7-8). Arbitrary analogy: "The first heart of the Man-God is his bodily heart, which is divinized, as are all the other parts of his sacred body through their hypostatic union with the divine Person of the eternal Word. The second is his spiritual heart, that is, the superior part of his holy soul containing his memory, understanding and will, which have been divinized in a special way by the hypostatic union. The third is his divine heart, the Holy Spirit, which has always animated and enlivened his adorable humanity more than his own soul and heart ever did. These three hearts in this admir­able God-Man are but a single heart, because his divine heart is the soul, the heart and the life of his spiritual and bodily heart. He grounds them in such a perfect union with himself that these three hearts are but a single unique heart, filled with an infinite love toward the blessed Trinity and an inconceivable love toward men."

Eudes, then, further explains this view by ‘classifying’ the meanings of the heart of Jesus.40

– Physical heart of Jesus is “the most holy heart of his divinized body, which is a furnace of incomparable, divine love toward us. For since this sacred heart is united hypostatically to the person of the Word, it is enkindled with the flames of his infinite love toward us.” Jesus heart was broken by his excessive love for us.


– Spiritual heart of Jesus is “the will of his holy soul. It is a purely spiritual faculty whose proper role is to love what is lovable and detest what is detestable” (the latter being sin). This ‘superior part’ of Jesus’s soul is already fundamentally oriented towards the will of his Father: “this divine Savior so completely sacri­ficed his human will to his Father that he never fulfilled it while he was on earth and will never do so in heaven.” E.g. in the Garden of Olives.


– Divine heart of Jesus is love of Father and humanity. This heart “he possesses from all eternity in the adorable bosom of his Father; [it] is but one heart and one love with the heart and love of his Father; and with the heart and love of his Father, it is the origin of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, when he gave us his heart, he gave us as well the heart of his Father and his adorable Spirit.” Eudes had Trinitarian perspec­tive; love is the principle of all reality. The heart of Jesus is the center of the universe and the point of contact between God and creation. Eudes, with his heart typology, continued Bérulle’s theory of the “états” of Jesus, by emphasizing (like Olier) Jesus’s interior state, his inner life, which is symbolized by the heart. Heart terminology makes Bérullian Christology less metaphy­sical more intimate, subjective, internal. Possible motives and causes for this shift of emphasis can be found in the challenge of Jansenism (see below), but also in the general humanistic background. Henri Bremond: Jean Eudes’s spirituality of the Sacred Heart was the almost natural convergence of the two major currents in French religious thought during the first half of the 17th century, namely the “école française” (Bérullianism) and devout humanism. Devout human­ism from François de Sales. Bremond observed a certain “oscillation,” a variation of accents in the meaning of the heart of Jesus. From Bérul­le: heart as symbol of the whole person; From de Sales: heart as symbol of love. Bremond indicates that this is not a contradiction, that both aspects can be conciliated. In the later popularization of the devotion (via Alacoque) the under­standing of Jesus’s heart as love will become predominant. Mainly from Liturgical initiatives.

Marguerite-Marie Alacoque (1647-1690)

Sacred Heart Devotion popularly associated with Visitandine nun Margue­rite-Marie Alacoque, Paray-le-Monial. Soon after her entrance she had extra­ordinary experi­ences, visions and appearances concern­ing the love of Christ, & his physical heart; encountered resistance, but, from 1675 on, she was supported by her temporary con­fessor, Jesuit Claude La Colombière. Christ chose her to reveal his treasures to humanity; she saw his wounded heart surrounded by a crown of thorns, seated on a throne of fire and with a cross above it. She was instructed to honor God in the form of a heart of flesh; Christ, showing himself with his five wounds, complained about the ingratitude of humanity and demanded Marguerite to give him consola­tion by making up for their ingratitude. “Great Revela­­tion” of June 1675, in which Jesus communicated his “message to the Church:” "One day, kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament during the octave of Corpus Christi, I was deluged with God’s loving favours. Inspired to make some return, and to give him love for love, I heard him say: “Do what I’ve already so often asked you; you can’t show your love in a finer way than that!” He disclosed his divine Heart as He spoke: “There it is, that Heart so deeply in love with humanity, it spared no means of proof – wearing itself out until it was utterly spent! This meets with scant appreciation from most of them; all I get back is ingratitude – witness their irreverence, their sacrileges, their coldness and contempt for me in this Sacrament of Love. What hurts me most is that hearts dedicated to my service behave in this way. That is why I am asking you to have the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi set apart as a special feast in honor of my Heart – a day on which to receive me in holy Com­mu­nion and make a solemn act of repara­tion for the indignities I have received in the Blessed Sacrament while exposed on the altars of the world. I promise you, too, that I shall open my Heart to all who honor me in this way, and who get others to do the same; they will feel in all its fullness the power of my love.”
Strong affectivity; a psychological explanation seems obvious: hysteria. But also connects with the long tradition of the mysticism of the heart in the medieval mystics mentioned above, also de Sales, and Bérulle. If we consider the ‘revelation’ of the heart as such, the language used becomes less intimate. Showing his heart, full of love for humanity, Jesus complains love was not requited, received ingratitude and disrespect. Juridical reparation required; monarchic {offend monarch worse than offend neighbor}; public significance; reparation; even religious people not faithful; Feast required, further developing Eudes initiatives. Liturgy allowed hierarchs to contol religious life. From the 18th century on, the devotion to the Sacred Heart further developed. The Trinitarian context of Eudes was replaced by a concentration on the denied love of Jesus for humanity & human reparation. Revelatory impulse was given to the devotion at Marseille, in 1720, infested by the plague. The Bishop of Marseille (who was allied to the Jesuits) thought plague was caused by God’s wrath over toward Jansenists. Advised by the Visitandine nun Anne-Madeleine Rémusat (1697-1730; she developed the idea of reparation as redamatio), he consecrated Marseille to the Sacred Heart to petition end of the plague. From 1765 on, Sacred Heart liturgies approved by Rome. The enormous spread, confirmed by the popes.

• In 1856, Pius IX declared it a feast of the whole Latin Church.
  

• On 25 May 1899, Leo XIII issued the encyclical Annum sacrum, elevated to highest level feast.
  

• On 8 May 1928, Miserentissimus Redemptor, Pius XI on need of a subjective reparation of humanity with regard to Christ responding to the objective reparation of humanity by Christ.
  

• On 15 May 1956, Pius XII, in his encyclical Haurietis aquas, Sacred Heart is natural symbol of the immense love of Christ for humanity.
  

  This grasp out of the numerous confirmations of the devotion by the highest church authorities, as well as the omnipresence of the symbol in the whole catholic world (with the amazing restriction for the Western world, were around the 1960’s it nearly disappeared50) shows that the devotion to the Sacred Heart, which began in Paray-le-Monial, has become one of the most widespread spiritual movements the Roman Catholic Church has ever known.
  

Jansenism

“Le jansénisme n’existe pas” ‘Jansenism’ was a polemi­cal term, used from 16,41 by anti-Jansenists, links to Augustine and Louvain theologian and later Bishop of Ieper, Cornelius Jansenius (15,85-16,38), that was condemned by the Holy See. It was seen polemically, negatively - history from view of winners. Reformation spoke of absolute grace, catholic response was divided, Gratia sufficiens - Molina, Jesuits, need grace, response is required, extreme catholic position. Banez proposed gratia efficax where human freedom evaporates. Jansen approached the second - grace seduces human will. Jansenius wasn't a Jansenist. Augustine has similar sentences that were condenmed in Jansen.
Historical Jansenism definition indefensible historically. Jan­sen­ist = tradi­tional-conser­vative, more ‘northern’ and Augustinian, anti-Jansen­ist humanis­tic-progres­sive, more ‘southern’ and represented by the Jesuits. Both tendencies acted as opposite parties, which represented opposite mentalities, and the con­fron­tation was fought out in various areas of eccle­siastical life.
Different strategy of apostolic action. Jesuit had spirituality which was confident in the human capacities, regenerated by grace. Jansenism, (under Augustinian) saw the dangers of naturalism and a spiritua­lity which was more theo­centric, conscious of God’s transcendence and the omni­potence of God’s grace.
Christian optimism implied dog­matic Molinism (grace is divine cooperation with human acts) and moral probabi­lism (a more indulgent position), pessimistic Augustinism emphasized the absolute priority of grace with regard to human freedom and defended a more rigorist morality.
Both authentically Christian. Polemic - magisterium attempted to assimilate new currents of thought, and Jansenism was based on Scripture and the Fathers (especially Augustine), which was ill-disposed to doctrinal devel­op­ment. Ecclesiological polemic between centrality and local churches. Basic dispute was about the relation between divine grace and human freedom. In France this occasionally became political. The basis, the sources of the ‘Jansenis­t’ current in the French church were directly connected with Bérullian­ism. The first prominent repre­sen­tatives of what would later become the ‘Jansenist’ party in France, were already active even before Jansenius’s Augusti­nus was published. They clearly adhered to the spirituality of Pierre de Bérulle. The central figure in this circle was Jean Duvergier de Hauranne, better known as the abbé de Saint-Cyran.

1. Saint-Cyran and Port-Royal

Jean Duvergier de Hauranne 1581-1643 Studied arts in Paris and then theology in Louvain, were he received the doctorate in 1604. With Janse­nius he made an inten­sive study of the Church Fathers. In 1618 Duvergier was ordained a priest, and in 1620 he received the benefice of the abbey Saint-Cyran. In this period, he was introduced to the top of the French eccle­siastical world. and became a collaborator of Bérulle, published Vie de Jésus. Helped Bérulle against the Jesuits and defending the “voeux de servitude.” After Bérulle’s death, Saint-Cyran lead the “parti dévot,” and inherited Richelieu's disfavor.
Saint-Cyran’s spirituality was decisively influenced by Bérulle, con­cen­trating on the Word incarnate, the “anéantissement” of Jesus’s human­­ity and the corresponding ‘nothingness’ of the soul which adheres to the sacrificial state of Jesus. He also held the central position of Mary and the importance assigned to the priesthood. De Sales was less funda­mental, but important. Saint-Cyran was not so optimistic but liked his emphasis on love, charity as the core of the interior life. He also adopted the ‘secular’ conception of sanctity. Augustinianism was also important, however whereas Jan­senius was a scholar treating the relation between grace and free will, Saint-Cyran was primarily interested in the spiritual life. He held the Augustinian (from Bérulle), insistence on the creature’s depen­dence on his Creator, without drawing strict con­sequen­ces from his theological views for the spiri­tual life. For grace, every­thing is possible.
“Renouvellement” Later he turned to psychological aspects of the interior life, though still convinced that this life was funda­mentally ‘directed’ by the action of the Holy Spirit (“prayer is less an activity of the human person than of the Spirit”), abandon­ment to the Holy Spirit, ‘pneumat­ism’. Holy spirit works in director and directee in Spiritual Direction, called “renouvellement” or renewal. He saw need of repentance, and distinguished contritio and attritio. ‘Contrition’ = forgive­ness of sin requires real repentance, based on love for God (‘perfect contrition’). Others, like Richelieu, considered ‘attrition’ sufficient, ie the simple regret for sin, based on personal motives, such as fear for punishment (‘imperfect contri­tion’). Saint-Cyran sought conversion through penance, by “renouvellement” the penitent would pass through a period of repen­tance (short period without absolution or communion) so as to reach a solid state of conversion, note Augu­stinian pessim­ism. He saw this also as a return to the practices of the ancient church, ‘primitivism’ (a predilection for primitive Christianity, the ancient church).
Port-Royal was the female Cistercian monastery which was the center of the Jansenist movement in France. Reformed under Mère Angélique Arnauld (1591-1661), strict Benedictinism was restored together with de Sales and Chantal, integrating new, modern forms of spiritual life. During the 1620’s, Port-Royal under the Oratory and became a fervent center of Eucharistic devotion. Condrens sacri­ficial annihilationism influenced particularly Angélique’s sister, Soeur Agnès Arnauld (1593-1671), who wrote Chapelet secret du Saint-Sacrement, which presented Condren in a rather unbalanced way. Sorbonne issued a condemnation. Saint-Cyran wrote a refutation, which occasioned a ‘war of pamphlets’, until the hierarchy ordered to stop the discussions. Saint-Cyran won but provoked Richelieu. Imprudently, Saint-Cyran informed the sisters about his theory of “renouvel­le­ment,” which the sisters radicalized, provoking public disapproval. In 1637, jurist, Antoine Le Maître (a nephew of Mère Angélique) converted and retreated in solitude and prayer with others as the “Solitaires de Port-Royal” or “les messieurs de Port-Royal,” who lived a simple life of prayer and study, in a community without any vows or internal discipline. Religious felt insulted. In 1635 a pamphlet, Mars Gallicus, opposed to Richelieu’s alliance with the protestant Germans. Written by Jansenius, but Richelieu attributed it to Saint-Cyran and went on the attack. In 1638 a pamphlet was issued condemning attrition by calling invalid the abso­lution for a prince who fights against the interests of Catholicism: a clear allu­sion to Louis XIII. Richelieu imprisoned Séguenot and Saint-Cyran, but couldn't substantiate an accusation against Saint-Cyran. In prison, Saint-Cyran (now a martyr in popular opinion) battled attritionism and received the French edition of Augu­stinus by Jansenius. In 1643, after the death of Richelieu, Saint-Cyran (who was once called by Richelieu “more dangerous than six armies”) was released, but died only a few months later.

2. The Jansenist Controversy in France

Jansenius’s “Augustinus” 1640 After 1607, with Paul 5ths De auxiliis, the theological problem of the relation between grace and free will was no real issue in France. Molinism was practically unknown, at the Sorbonne Thomas and Augustine were taught.was honored as the Doctor of Grace. Jansenius’s Augustinus raised the problem again. It was a monumental study, published after his death. Jansenius wished to write a piece of positive theology: return to grace as developed by Augustine, the doctor gratiae, but implicitly it was also directed against the gratia sufficiens of Molina - grace is sufficient, but requries human assent. Against this view, Jansenius defended the Augustinian gratia effi­cax, God’s grace is infallibly and irresistibly an efficient grace, give capacity and moves to action. Grace to Adam was distinguised from Grace through Christ, using Augustine’s distinction between an adjutorium sine quo non (indispensable aid) and an adjutorium quo (operative, causative aid). Adam, already inclined to God didn't need adjutorium quo, inducing a free decision. Through the fall, humanity has lost this inclination to God. The grace of Christ restores the orientation to God (it elevates human­ity to God; it remains a gratia elevans). It must also be a gratia sanans, healing from self-love, must be an adju­torium quo, grace must not only create the capacity but also give to the human will its willing and acting. Thus, the human person is gratu­i­tous­ly, without his cooperation, converted from love for creature to love for God. Is human freedom still necessary and possible? Yes, but it is moved by the Good, delectatio victrix. Grace inclines the heart towards a spiritual, holy delectatio coelestis, which wills only what God wills. Both delectationes are the two principles of our acts, good or bad, they infal­libly deter­mine our moral attitude. The delectatio which ultimately moves the will to consent is the delectatio victrix. When this ‘victorious delectation’ is directed towards God, then it is not the result of an act of the free will; rather, it is a desire which irresistibly induces the soul to aspire to the good, and which moves the will to free consent. In this sense, free will is not excluded. Grace causes infallibly, but not necessarily, that the human person does not want to resist. Psychologizing explanation reconciles infallibly efficacious grace with the free human consent. In addition, Jansenius preserved the classical Thomistic (and Augu­stinian) doctrine of predes­tina­tion. Just as God’s grace is fully gratuitous, so God’s predes­tina­tion is independent of human merits. In other words: here too, a rejection is included of the Moli­nist predestination post praevisa merita, which makes God’s election (even if it has fore­knowledge of human actions) dependent on human merits. The book was attacked by Jesuits not as a reading of Augustine, but as speculative theology.
Antoine Arnauld (1612-1694) was the major French proponent of Jansenism “le Grand Arnauld.” After 1641 doctorate from the Sorbonne he cooperated with Saint-Cyran’s during imprisonment. Isaac Habert, doctor at the Sorbonne, instigated by Richelieu, attacked. Arnauld responded with an extensive Apologie pour M. Jansénius, written in 1643, but only published in 1644. Louvain Jesuits were orchestrating condemnation of Jansenism, issued in 1643 with the bull In eminenti, it remained ineffective in France. While in Louvain the controversy on the issue of grace continued, in France the discussion was transferred to two related issues.
1) discussion continued on Saint-Cyran’s ideas concerning penance and communion, and “renouvel­­lement”. In 1643 Arnauld reacted with a voluminous work, De la fréquente commu­nion, (after Richelieu’s death), taking a rigorist approach from de Sales and Bérulle and the ancient church. Thus, the psychological method of Saint-Cyran was legitimized by representing it as a return to the practice of the primitive church - “le goût de l’archaïsme,” typical for the Counter-Reformation. Arnauld’s work was a best-seller, but opposed by Jesuits and Vincent de Paul, who feared that its rigorism would reduce sacramental practice. In reply, Arnauld published, in 1644, La tradition de l’Église sur le sujet de la pénitence et de la communion, from ancient texts. Efforts to obtain a Roman condemna­tion were unsuccessful.
2) Arnauld controverted the moral theory of the Jesuit casuistry, which adopted the principles of moral theology in concrete cases, seen as lax. Théologie morale des jésuites was his `prelude’ to the attack 13 years later by Pascal.
Gallicanism - strong local churches, in germany febronianism. Conciliarism - supreme authority is in council, not local churches, or Roman Center.
Five propositions condemned in “Cum occasione” 1653 King Louis 13th died in 1645. Cardinal Mazarin, Richelieu’s successor, turned queen regent, Anne of Austria, against Jansenists. Numerous sympathizers of Jansenism changed posi­tion; even Vincent de Paul did so from 1648 on. Ultimately, Port-Royal remained the last bastion of resistance and the target for Mazarin. Under King Louis XIV, repression of Port-Royal official policy (which, in its turn, drew a number of traditionally anti-absolutist groups such as the “noblesse de robe” to the side of the Jansenists).
In 1649, Nicolas Cornet submitted seven propositions, (ascribed to Jansenius’s Augustinus) to the Sorbonne then to the Holy See (an unusual, un-Gallican act). After much debate, Innocent 10th in Cum occasione, in 1653, condemned five of the propositions.

1. Some of God’s commandments are impossible for just people - (denial of Peter.)
   

2. In the state of fallen nature one never resists grace. Grace overpowers.
   

3. In the state of fallen nature, in order to earn a merit or to lose it, freedom from necessity is not required in man; freedom from compul­sion is enough.
   

4. The Semi-Pelagians admitted the necessity of prevenient internal grace for all particular acts including the beginning of faith; and they were heretics because they wanted this grace to be such that the human will could either resist or obey it.
   

5. It is Semi-Pelagian to say that Christ died or shed his blood for all in general. (predestination)

Propositions 1-4 were called heretical (irresistability of grace), proposition 5 was called heretical “if it is intended to mean that Christ died only for the salvation of the predestined.” The first four propositions were clearly related to the necessity and irresistibility of grace and its relation to free will; the fifth reflected the position of gratuitous predestination. It is also clear that the general tendency of the propositions resembled Jansenius’s position on a formal level. Sentences out of context. the con­demnation by Rome was a complete victory for the anti-Jansenists. From now on, resistance did no longer come from Louvain, but only from Paris.

The distinction between “droit” and “fait” Jansenists first withdrew in silence. Then Jesuit François Annat (the king’s confes­sor), argued that the five condemned propo­si­tions were taken literally from Augustinus. Arnauld reacted, with the notorious distinction between the quaestio facti and the quaestio iuris. First sentence was found in Augustinius in a context which was completely orthodox. Accepted condemnation “by right”, but in their heretical meaning, they did not derive from Jansenius’s work. Later condemnation of sentences should be understood in the sense meant by Jansenius. Pamphlet controversy. Arnauld acted as spokesman of the Jansenists. He repeated that he accepted the con­dem­nation of the heresies, included in the five sentences, but he preferred to keep silent about the question whether they could be ascribed to Jansenius. Shortly after, Arnauld was debarred from the Sorbonne, retired and, was assisted by the young theologian Pierre Nicole 1625-1695.

The intervention of Blaise Pascal. Public debate entered by Blaise Pascal 1623-1662, the famous mathematician and physician. Pascal had cordial relations with Port-Royal, where his younger sister Jacqueline had entered. In January 1656, in defense of Arnauld, he published the first of his famous Lettres écrites à un provincial. With these pamphlets a new episode in the conflict started. In the seventeen letters that were still to come, Pascal not only took the defense of Arnauld, but he also launched a sharp attack on the laxist morals of the Jesuits. His letters provoked enormous commotion and dealt the Jesuits a blow, from which the Society did not really recover. The Lettres provin­ciales were not only received with approval by rigorist Catholics, but they had a remarkable echo in public opinion. On the other hand, Mazarin and his circles were so irritated by the polemics, that they conceived the plan to liquidate Jansenism definitively. They found an ally in the new Pope Alexander 7th 1655, the anti-Jansenist Cardinal Fabio Chigi. Under French pressure, in October 1656 the pope issued the bull Ad sacram, in which, once again, it was stated that the five sentences were contained in Augustinus and condemned in accord with Jansenius’s meaning. In France, the bull was released only in 1657. Arnauld repeated the Jansenist position: “de droit” he accepted the condemnation of the heretical propositions, “de fait” he simply stated that the pope had been mistaken in ascribing these propositions to Jansenius. Therefore, Arnauld preferred to keep to a “silence respectueux,” a ‘respectful silence’ about the latter point (to which he refused inner adherence). Besides, at Port-Royal not everyone agreed with Arnauld’s position: some preferred extreme resistance, even to the question of “right,” others thought that the matter should be entrusted to God by accepting the condemnation in obedience.

The “Formulaire” and the “Clementine Peace.” After the death of Mazarin 1661, Louis XIV, who was completely in the hands of his Jesuit confessor, imposed anti Jansenism and made clergy and other religious sign a Formu­lary. Port-Royal oppressed. New members were removed, spiritual directors, confessors, and Solitaires were exiled or imprisoned. The sisters, however, still refused to sign the Formulary. More severe measures. In February 1665, Pope Alexander VII had issued the bull Regiminis apostolici, in which he ordered the signing of the Formulary. The bull did not have many effects, since four French bishops were only prepared to require a signature under the condition that the Formulary was understood according to the distinction between “droit” and “fait.”
Pope Clement 9th in 1668 one arrived at a compromise: publicly sign, but secret protocol containing the distinction between “droit” and “fait”. Most Signed. “Clementine Peace” for 30 years. Port-Royal flourished peacefully. In 1670, the Pensées of Pascal were published, as were, one year later, excerpts from Saint-Cyran’s notices and correspondence. Solitaires of Port-Royal produced trans­­lations of spiritual authors, Holy Scripture. Arnauld and Nicole also began polemics with Calvinism, in which they cooperated with Bossuet.
“Unigenitus” 1713 Fragile Pax Clementina. Louis XIV resumed actions against the Jan­sen­ists. Arnauld fled,established at Brussels, where he died in 1694. Political Jansenism. Jacques-Joseph Duguet 1649-1733 and Pasquier Quesnel 1634-1719. Quesnel wrote New Testament with reflections 1671, known under its abbreviated title Réflexions morales. Berullian.
1701 “cas de conscience” Priest refused absolution to a person who had adopted the “respectful silence.” In 1705, Pope Clement XI in Vineam Domini, condemned the attitude of respect­ful silence. Fénelon was an extreme anti-Jansenist, attacked Quesnel’s Réflexions morales. Louis XIV liquidated what remained of Port-Royal. Unigenitus Dei Filius of Clement XI condemned 101 propositions taken from Quesnel’s Réflexions morales. The condemna­tion was not only directed against positions on grace (1-43), but also against extreme opinions on the role of the virtue of charity (44-93) and the origin and character of powers in the church (94-101). This caused division and threatened schism in France. Acceptants - Appellants (growing group) appealed for a council. 10 years of violent conflict. Appellants excommunicated in Pastoralis officii, 1718. In 1730, Unigenitus was declared law of the land, opponents lost their benefices. Minority had strange miraculous claims. Louis 14th imposed “Law of Silence.” Term Jansensim becomes name for rigorist, protestant extremists.

3. Jansenist Spirituality

Represented in rather negative fashion. anti-humanistic, back­ward-looking, rigorist Augustine, severe, repressive moral teaching, elitist, ‘spiritual pride’. These nega­tive assessments do not seem to be totally justified. When Jansenism is treated in line with predominant spiritual currents in French Catholicism (as is done here), it appears that the representatives of Jansenism did not fundamen­tally differ from the authors treated. The spiritual tendency of authors who are labeled Jansenists had strong affinities with Bérullian spiri­tuality. In fact, the main figures in the Jansenist move­ment – from Saint-Cyran to Quesnel – were either Oratorians or spiritually connected with the Oratory. Therefore, we can refer to the spirituality of Saint-Cyran, as sketched above, which is the major example of what can be called ‘Jansenist’ spirituality. It was inspired by Pierre de Bérulle, but also by François de Sales; it was strongly Augustinian (and there­fore, like other Augustinian spiritualities: pessimistic and rigorist); it had its own accents with regard to the doctrine of grace, but these had always to be subservient to the practical concern to stimulate spiritual life. In addition to Saint-Cyran, complementary remarks on Jansenist spiri­tuality can start from Port-Royal, which was the center of the movement, particu­larly on the spiritual level.
A combination of monastic and modern traditions of prayer Port-Royal revived the monastic tradition of the Cistercians. Holy Office was strictly observed - simple, spontane­ous contemplative prayer. The “prayer of the heart,” or “prière du pauvre” of Saint-Cyran, was concentrated on the contemplation of the Psalter. See Duguet - spiritual ideal of Port-Royal in their life ‘in the world’, largely Bérullian following Port-Royal Saint-Cyran and the Oratorians.
Grace and predestination. Jansenist view on God’s grace and predestination was based on the absolute priority of God’s transcendence. Molinist effort to find ‘reasons’ for divine predilection was rejected by Jansenius. God transcendent, incomprehensible, but not arbitrary, fundamentally related to the incomprehensible God. God’s absolute transcendence affects view of grace and human freedom. God's freedom and human freedom in tension. As if the human person can only be free if he is independent from God. Jansenius turns the reasoning upside down. Human freedom is precisely the instance of the encounter with God. Freedom to do the good and to love God is ‘cooperation’ from the part of the human person, which can only be the result of God’s grace. Freedom does not lead to a kind of competition with God; rather, it is made possible by God. Original sin, the funda­mental sinful­ness of humanity, obviously reflects a very pessimistic anthropology. Jansenius begins with the fact that every human person is born guilty, consciousness of the slavery of sin leads to understanding what liberation through Christ really means.

Moral life: rigorism Wants to integrate moral and spiritual life. Jansen­ism rejected a global conception of morality, instead morality is the fundamental love relation with God. Conversion means an attitude which is oriented towards God and fostered by love for God. Fear signifies the persistence of self-love. This emphasis on the relation with God as the basis of moral life naturally makes high demands on the human person: in this sense, you can speak about rigorism, by which the Jansenists strongly refused the more lenient and extravert Catholicism of the Jesuits.
Truth and truthfulness. Jansenists paid exceptional attention to truth and truthfulness. In ethics, conver­sion and revision of life was required instead of compromise. True penance,equally implies a renewed orientation of the person’s whole life to God, easy penance doesn't help. Jansenism was much more moderate than has often been suggested. Jansenism was not ‘anti-sacramental’, it did not devaluate sacraments but opposed to any magical conception of the sacra­ments. Here too, Jansenists stressed the life to which sacramental signs must refer, Opposed any formalism in liturgy, Stressed active participation by the faithful, translated liturgical texts. For the Jansenists, confession and ritual should always coincide with inner life and experience, they held obstinate faith­fulness to truth to the point of martyrdom.
‘Ressourcement’ and return to the ideal of the ancient church. Saint-Cyran and Arnauld promoted ‘ressourcement’, found in Christian humanism. At Port-Royal, the Solitaires devoted them­selves to the study of the Bible and the Church Fathers (in the original languages) and Encouraged laypersons to read the Bible as a spiritual exercise. This was condemned by the bull Unigenitus. Tended towards an elitist spirituality, on the moral as well as on the intellectual level. Probably, you can say that this radicalism was one of the reasons why the Jesuits, with their more ‘lenient’ approach, were the eventual ‘winners’ in this controversy.
Blaise Pascal: certitude of the heart Pascal is probably the most impressive representative of that what united the Jansenists. His spirituality can be called dramatic. As such, it is typical for his dramatic life, in which the tragic of Jansenism comes to the fore in all its sharpness. Jansenism was a ‘spiri­tual­ity of the heart’, rejected the Sacred Heart spirituality. But saw the heart is at the core of Christian life. The heart is the center of the human being, from which knowledge of reality and the will ori­ginate. It is also the place where God and human being meet. Arnauld wrote: “Les paroles et les livres frappent les sens; c’est Dieu seul qui touche le coeur.”
Pensées. Pascal used the symbol of the heart in various meanings. The first one was intended as a correction of the new ideal of certitude, which emerged in modern thought. Since Descartes, certitude was found in the action of reason, which approaches reality “more geometrico,” through rational deduction. Of course, the scientist Pascal did not reject such rational argumenta­tion, but he insisted that this rationality was not able to grasp the whole of reality. Next to “raisonne­ment,” more is needed: “sentiment,” feeling, intuition. This knowledge, unattainable for reason, is expressed by Pascal with “le coeur,” the heart: “The heart has its reasons which are unknown to reason; we are aware of it in a thousand ways”. Knowledge of the heart is essential with regard to the ground of all reality, the relation between humanity and God: “It is the heart which is aware of God and not reason. That is what faith is: God perceived intuitively by the heart, not by reason” Pascal dramatically evokes the paradox of the human condition. On the one hand, as a genial scientist, he is aware of the “grandeur” of the human being. But, at the same time, he is existentially struck by the consciousness of human misery and nothingness. Fundamentally, the human person aspires to an infinite good, which cannot be reached in the created world.
The road to the divine, sketched by Pascal, clearly follows the path sketched by French spirituality, which he had learned to know at Port-Royal. First, there is the basic awareness of God’s absolute transcendence. Op­posed to this is sinful humanity, driven by concupiscence. The human person is being torn by the ambiguity of existence: in his sinfulness, he is “opposed to God,” but, at the same time, “he is happy only in God”. The only way to over­come this inner conflict is faith in Jesus Christ who, as a sacrifice, has taken up the rejection of humanity. Through Christ, we attain certain knowledge of God, a knowl­­edge only visible for “the eyes of the heart.” Christian life is more than mere external imitation; it is adherence to the states of Jesus. Such adherence is only possible through God’s grace, which moves the disposition of the heart away from earthly things and orientates it to God’s love. “Do not be surprised at the sight of simple people who believe without argument. God makes them love him and hate them­selves. He inclines their heart to believe. We shall never believe with a vigor­ous and unquestioning faith unless God touches our hearts; and we shall believe as soon as he does so”. This change from love for the world to love for God is a real conversion, a way which may end in the ultimate union of the soul with God.
Pascal’s picture of the soul’s road to God mirrors his own tormented life experiences. The road is hard and painful, but inspired by grace it can nourish spiritual life and possibly even give a foretaste of eternal peace. Famous text, which was found after his death, sewed into the lining of his jacket – the “Mémorial,” a reflection of an ecstatic, mystical experience from the year 1654, known as Pascal’s ‘second conversion’.
The year of grace 1654. Monday 23 November, Feast of St. Clement, Pope and mar­tyr, and others belonging to the Martyrology. Vigil of St. Chrysogonos, martyr, and others, from about half past ten in the evening until about half past twelve midnight.

Fire.

God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob,


not of the philosophers and the scholars.


Certitude, Certitude, emotion, joy, peace.


(God of Jesus Christ).


God of Jesus Christ.


Deum meum et deum vestrum. [Jn 20:17]


Thy God shall be my God. [Ruth 1:16]


Oblivion of the world and of everything, except God.


He can only be found by the ways taught in the Gospel.


Greatness of the human soul.


Righteous Father the world has not known thee, but I have known thee. [Jn 17:25]


Joy, Joy, Joy, tears of joy.


I have separated myself from him.


Derelinquerunt me fontem aquae vivae. [Jer 2:13]


Lord, wilt thou forsake me? [Mt 27:64; Ps 21:2]


Let me not be separated from him eternally.


This is eternal life, that they should know that thou art the only true God and him whom thou has sent, J.C. [Jn 17:3]


Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ.


I have cut myself off from him; I have fled from him, denied him, crucified him.


Let me never be separated from him.


We can only keep him by the ways taught in the Gospel.


Total and delicious renunciation.


Etc.


Total submission to Jesus Christ and to my spiritual director.


Eternal joy in return for one day of travail in this life.


Non obliviscar sermones tuos. Amen. [Ps 119:6]

The profound considerations of this genial thinker on the eve of modernity have compelled many theologians and philosophers to a confrontation with his thought. The various, often contrary appreciations of Pascal reflect an ambiguity which is also present in the judgment on Jansenism in general. The fundamental tendency of this current was essentially anti-humanistic: an Augustinian, theo­centric, pessimistic and uncompromising Christianity, reacting against the new, humanistic tendencies in Catholicism. Eventually, it was not able to prevent the break­through of this new, modern culture, either in the church. As such, Jansenism was, with the French “milieu dévot” in general, the champion of a lost cause, because it had become out of time.

Quietism

Last important spiritual current in 17th-century France, (opposed to Jansenism / nearly its counterpart). Jansenists work out their salvation, Quietists favored passivity of the will, and abandonment of oneself to God; opposed to active ascetic practice and discursive meditation. It developed in Italy, Spain, and France.
Mysticism and anti-mysticism in French spirituality Influences Rheno-Flemish mysticism, Spanish mystics, Benoît de Canfield and the ‘abstract school’ with elimination of conceptu­ality and absorption of the will in the will of God. Also influential were François de Sales and Jeanne de Chantal, with “holy indif­ference,” contempla­tion without any “entendement,” simple surrender to God’s loving presence. Anti-mysticism condemnation of Quietism in 1699 signified the end of mys­ticism in French catholic spirituality. Suspicion of the mystic, is probably as old as mysticism itself from Christian humanism and illu­sionary risks of mysticism and eccentricism. In 1623 the Spanish Inquisitor Andres Pacheco had published a decree against the “Alum­brados” and illuminism. Richelieu included such anti-mysticism in his political action against Saint-Cyran. adumbrados > molinos > acrie.
1641, the Jesuit Antoine Sirmond attacked François de Sales version of spiritual direction. Sirmond engaged in a polemics with Jean-Pierre Camus, Bishop of Belley, who shortly before had published the work La défense du pur amour. Pure love similar to holy indifference.
General distrust of Mysticism from mid 17th century on, more intellectualism and psychologism. Mysticism became suspect and was replaced with a spirituality that was tending towards moralism, rationalism. Spiritual psychologism promoted by Louis Tronson, the superior general of Saint-Sulpice, editing Olier, distaste for mysticism shift to asceticism. Also Jean-Joseph Duguet, Pasquier Quesnel and Pierre Nicole: Réfutation des princi­pales erreurs des quiétistes (1695).

Madame Guyon

1687 Roman condemnation of Miguel de Molinos 1628-1711. Wrote Guía espiritual in 1675 inspired by John of the Cross and Rhineland mysticism, passive prayer, accused of dispensing from moral obligation. 20 November 1687, Inno­cent XI in Coelestis Pastor condemned Molinos and Annihilation of human capacities and passivity. Collective psychosis regarding mysticism seen as total passivity and moral laxism.
Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de la Motte 1648-1717, married to Jacques Guyon du Chesnoy, was widowed since 1676. Dedicated to charity and mystical prayer, developed an apostolate of mysticism, in Savoy, in Turin, in Grenoble, and then in Paris. Met Madame de Maintenon, the wife of Louis XIV, and François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon 1651-1715. Madame Guyon wrote Moyen court et très facile pour l’oraison 1685, “prayer of the heart.” Les Torrents, 1704 on abstract mysticism. These thoughts fascinated Fénelon. Intrigues spread regarding Saint-Cyr. In 1693, Madame de Maintenon dismissed Madame Guyon and Fénelon from Saint-Cyr. Madame Guyon appealed to Jacques Bénigne Bossuet (Gallican) 1627-1704 who disapproved.
The controversy between Fénelon and Bossuet Quietism started discussing Madame Guyon’s writings ended up in political debate. Commission organized in 1694, composed of Bossuet, Louis Tronson, the superior of Saint-Sulpice, and Louis-Antoine de Noailles, later Archbishop of Paris. Fénelon swepted in, submitted numerous “justi­fi­ca­tions.” Issued 34 Articles of Issy condemnation of Madame Guyon in April 1695. Each christian to preserve faith hope and charity, to pray for salvation, not to be indifferent to salvation, not to wait on God's action in lethargy. Fénelon refused to accept such a condemnation - he said these critiques not applicable to his spirituality.
Fénelon published Explanation of the Maxims of the Saints on the Interior Life, supporting his views from fathers, especially Clement of Alexan­dria: “All interior paths tend toward pure or disinterested love. This pure love is the highest degree of Christian perfection. It is the end of all the paths that the saints have experienced.” Fénelon distin­guished contemplation from medi­ta­tion. Medi­tation is discursive, reflective acts leading to imperfect love, still directed by fear and hope. Contem­pla­tion is simpler directing the soul to pure love for God. In five stages:
1. Servile Love The love of the carnal Jews for the gift of God, distinguished from him and not for him, can be named purely servile love. But since we will have no need at all to discuss it in this work, I shall say no more about it.
2. Concupiscent Love The love by which one loves God as a means or sole instrument of acquiring happiness that one uses only and absolutely in relation to oneself, as a final goal, can be called concupiscent love, that is, a love deriving from pure concupiscence.
3. Hopeful Love The love in which the motive of our own happiness is prevalent over that of God’s glory is named hopeful love. Commingled with selfless love of God.
4. Charitable Love The love in which charity is still commingled with a motive of self-interest, yet this motive is subordinate to the main motive and the ultimate goal, which is the pure glory of God, should be named charitable or mixed love. But as we shall need presently to contrast this love to that love called pure or entirely selfless, I am obliged to give to this mixed love the name of selfish love because, in fact, it is still mixed with the remains of self-interest, although it is a love that prefers God to oneself.
5. Pure Love The love of God alone, considered in and of himself and without any mixture or commingling of selfish motives or of fear or of hope is pure love: perfect charity. One still has involuntary inclinations and aversions that she sup­presses; but she no longer has voluntary or deliberate desires for herself-interest except in occasions where she does not cooperate faithfully with all grace given to her. This indifferent soul, when she has recourse to grace, no longer wants anything except for God alone and in the way that God wants her to want him by this attraction. Holy indif­ference = abandonment = annihilation = transforming union = distinct from the previous state, holy resignation, which still includes hope and charity.
Indifference implies annihil­a­tion, or trans­formation of the self. The state of contem­pla­tion is a state of perfect quietude, passivity, in which the soul sees Christ in a simple and loving faith. In most of these expositions, one can clearly observe the influ­ence of François de Sales. But also Benoît de Canfield’s abstract mysticism and insistence on con­formity of will with the will of God = true freedom and inner peace in God.
In the passive state there is a freedom for God’s children that has no relation to the frenzied liberation of the children of the secular world. These simple souls are no longer inhibited by the scruples of those souls who fear and hope for their own self-interest. Pure love gives them a respectful familiarity with God, much like that of a bride with her bridegroom. They have a peace and a joy full of innocence. Theu take with simplicity and without hesitation the relaxation to the body and soul that is really necessary, as they also advise their neighbor to do.
Bossuet didn't understand Fénelon. He continued to regard the passive state of mysticism as something exceptional, miraculous; couldn't imagine selfless love, but thought it would exclude hope.
The condemnation “Cum alias” 1699 1697 Fénelon publishes Maxims of the Saints. 1698 Bossuet publishes Instruc­tions on the states of prayer and Relation on quietism. 1699 Pope Innocent XII sympathized with Fénelon but in Cum alias gave a mild condemnation. Fénelon immediately submitted.
Jean Orcibal presented Quietism as the final stage of the movement which he termed the “positive Counter-Reformation.” Attempted to fight Protestantism in its own area, by developing a personal piety, focusing on a central, simple point, which might form the heart of the numerous catholic devotions. By the end of the century, it was clear that this movement was countered by a sharp reaction from church authorities. This, then, is the “negative Counter-Reformation.” It adopted a large concept of error and heresy and thus challenged every current which moved away from the ecclesiastical institution and its authority. Finally, through the various condemna­tions mentioned above, this centralistic current succeeded to eliminate ‘deviating’ movements in the Catholic Church. In the controversy on Quietism, this opposition is well expressed in the conflict between the two protagonists, Bossuet and Féne­lon. Well known is the judgment of Pope Innocent XII on their role in the controv­er­sy: “Erravit Camera­censis excessu amoris Dei; peccavit Meldensis defectu amoris proximi.” Fénelon, the Bishop of Cambrai, erred by loving God too much; Bossuet, the Bishop of Meaux, sinned by a lack of love for his neighbor.
Condemnation limited Fénelon continued to write, buy mysticism continued to decline except in some monasteries. In Germany, Quietism influenced the Pietist movement, in the Anglo-Saxon world, it influenced John Wesley and other ‘religions of the heart’, which shaped the religious outlook of Western Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. Also George Fox.

18th Century

Anticlimactic 17th century invasion of mystics, eighteenth century was anti-mystical betinning with the 1699 condemnation of fenelon: ascenticism, meditation and examination of conscience; disappearance of mystical literature; malaise of spirituality (La Trappe, 1626-1700) proliferation of spiritual literature.
18th century spiritual life remained in the shadow of the previous period; century of reason, of Enlightenment, rationality, modern thought superseding spirituality and religious experience. Church hierarchy was concerned to suppress any expression of uncontrolled quietism and illuminism.
Steggink and Waaij­man say: “During the 18th century, distrust against mystical spirituality reduces spiritual life and spiritual ‘theology’ to ascetic techniques of meditation, good resolutions, the examination of conscience, statis­tically controllable spiritual exercises. In France, it leads to a strengthening of the anti-mystic current and the disappearance of nearly all mystical literature up to deep in the 19th century.” Intellectualistic century, reluctance of reference to the ‘super­natural’. Rogier notices a certain fear to fall into extremes, which fills reli­gious life with flat mediocrity. Pascal to Voltaire. Jesuits promoted asceticism as opposed to mystical elitism.
La Trappe, Armand de Rancé 1626-1700, strict observance was introduced, which was approved by Pope Clement XI in 1705. Not terribly successful.
Small manuals of devotion found, devotional booklets were published, reprints of the works of the great spiritual authors with large and active readership.

Continuation of forms of devotion

During the 18th century the religious ‘fervor’ was greater than one usually assumed.
Eucharistic devotion was strongly stimulated during the 18th century, celebration of the Eucharist, adoration, perpetual adoration, exposure of the Blessed Sacrament, processions, First Communion. Eucharistic devotion is accompanied with philanthropy and charity.
Devotion to the Sacred Heart became widespread during the 18th century. Jesuits, Joseph de Gallifet 1663-1749, somewhat over­emphasized the ‘carnal’ heart as the center of feelings, and paid much attention to the revelations of Marguerite-Marie Alacoque. Biography of Marguerite-Marie Alacoque was anti-Jansenist provoked the reaction of the Jansenists against the Sacred Heart devotion. In 1726, Clemens XIII gave his approval to a mass and office of the Sacred Heart for Poland.
Devotion to Mary grew, Marian congregations. Often guided by Jesuits,, numerous confraternities often clandes­tine associations. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort 1673-1716 - last of the great Berullians. Studied at Saint-Sulpice, missionary, poor, founded Daughters of Wisdom, priests of the company of mary. Wrote True Devotion to the Holy Virgin 1712, wrote prayers in simple, poetic language, servants of Mary.
Cantique 87
Adorons tous Jésus vivant
Dans le sein de Marie.
Voyons avec étonnement
La Grandeur raccourcie.
Adorons un Dieu fait enfant
Pour nous donner la vie.

True Devotion was only discovered and printed in 1842. Major devotion of ordinary people, more than Jesus.

Continuation of mystical currents

Mysticism went underground.
Jean-Pierre de Caussade 1675-1761 Entered Jesuits in Toulouse, ordained in 1704, in 1728-39, he was made spiritual director of the Visitation (de Sales) sisters at Nancy, then Perpignan and Albi, finally Toulouse. His letters are important. Abandonment to Divine Providence 1861 by Henri Ramière ascribed to Caussade. Also On Prayer of the Heart. He had sympathy for Fénelon, tried to reconcile his thought with Bossuet. Influenced by François de Sales, called a Salesian Jesuit. Connected asceticism and mysticism: There is a time when the soul lives in God (ascetic) and there is a time when God lives in the soul (mystic).
Abandon self-abandonment is the way to God, spiritual life consists of a simple “adhérence” to the divine will, achieved through “spirituality of action,” based on the threefold way of Ignatius Loyola: God’s omnipresence; indifference; uni­fica­tion with God. 1) When you believe that God is present in all things, you can leave all the rest, in indifference, to divine providence; 2) indifference in submission to God; 3) trust in God which follows from such surrender and leads to union.
Amour pur pure love, simple touch of God. “Abandon” is a choice for God, it leads to total openness for the subject of its love.
Foi pure Pure love sees, feels and also believes with pure faith which replaces self-trust, everything is found in God.
Oraison du coeur Prayer of the heart, of quiet leads to abandoment, simply opens for divine grace, without dis­tract­ing itself by thoughts of the mind, which often shrive the human heart. Prayer is essentially a desire, a longing for God. Let go and let God, expecta­tion and receptivity to the “divine touch.”
Le sacrement du moment présent Remain true to the present, to the moment in which you are living, leave the rest in God's providence and mercy.

The confrontation with enlightened modernity

According to Plongeron, you can distinguish in the ‘spiritual life’ of Catholics two lines: a ‘devout model’ connected with the Jesuit current of thought, and, on the other hand, a kind of Christian Enlightenment. Opposition between, on the one hand, the tradition of the devout humanism of Fran­çois de Sales and, on the other, the aggiornamento of Christians who got hold of the times. Both were concerned with an adaptation of Christian faith to the social and economic needs of a society in change.
Catholic Enlightenment Tradition view contrasts Enlightenment and religion. Catholic Enlightenment is inner reform without losing respect for the tradition of the church fathers, the councils, and the great theological and spiritual authors. Navigates among rationalists, deists, freethinkers, a reasonable faith, religious anthropology. The word “aufklären” (to enlighten) seen as positive for faith. Take away the blindfolds from our eyes, so that the light can enter into our mind and our heart, to enlightened the former and warm the latter. With such eyes, we will once be able to see God. German Enlightenment wasn't as hostile to Christianity as was the case in France. Reasonable faith Romans 12, I urge you, brothers, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service.” “Reasonable” worship or service is a translation of “rationabile obsequium” (“obsequium” means: submission). Reason directed against all kinds of obscurantism, mystical exaltation, fanaticism and superstition, unbelief could only be resisted successfully by a reconciliation of faith and reason, a fundamental correction of the “modèle dévot.”
Immanuel Kant saw enlightenment as the emancipation of the human person out of dependency and lack of autonomy, which in matters of faith is expressed in all kinds of superstition. In an enlightened person faith and reason are equally present, freed from tutelage.
Christian philosophy, “ragionevolezza,” “raison­nabilité.” Here, truth has the help of legitimate authority. Such legitimate authority is a gift of God. Inspired by Thomas a Kempis’s Imitation of Christ. “Aufklärer” consciously remained within the church, even though they were critical about many petrified and outdated ecclesiastical institutions and practices.
Ludovico Antonio Muratori 1672-1750 and Johann Michael Sailer 1751-1832 former Jesuit, from Bavaria. Moderate Catholicism responding to Enlightenment. Sailer was forced out of University of Dillingen, after being accused for being an adherent of the Enlightenment. Later professor at University of Ingolstadt. In 1829, Sailer was made bishop of Regensburg. Sailer was open for the intellectual currents of his time, pleaded for a rejuvenation of the Church, arising from its internal strengths. He overcame Enlightenment by developing a theology and spirituality with deep biblical and patristic roots. This balance between Catholicism and a well-understood Enlightenment also implied a real “Bildung des Herzens,” a “formation of the heart,” that made possible an “integral” enlightenment, in which the difference between feeling and intellect, faith and reason, was overcome. Great influence on the renewal of catholic life in Bavaria. This ‘Catholic Enlightenment’ introduced a genuine religious revival up into the first decades of the 19th century. Gradually this was weakened, opposed, sometimes discredited, so that in the course of the century it was ousted by a new mass devotional Catholicism
The model of the devout Christian: Benoît-Joseph Labre Who was the saint of the catholic 18th century, put forward as such by the people? No profound mystic, no spiritually inspired hero, but a completely insignificant, marginal man, a nobody, in everything the anti-type of the enlightened Christian, but who, paradoxically, was venerated by the faithful of his time as the greatest saint: Benoît-Joseph Labre 1748-1783, known as the vagabond of God, his life is bizarre, it verges on the absurd, of simple birth, mentally subnormal, not accepted by religious communities, he began a life as a pilgrim, repulsive to all those who came near to him, until, eventually, he arrived in Rome. There, he lived in the streets and spent most of his time in churches, ecstasy. Finally he died of exhaustion, and immediate spontaneous veneration. Simple orientation to God, a critical alternative for the self-confident, autonomous world that presented itself in these enlightened days. Benoît-Joseph Labre, in his dull misery, became “the moth on the lanterns” of the Enlightenment, reminding people, now and then, of other values than those that seemed to conquer the world. Apparently, it was this aspect of devotion that continued to fascinate Catholics during the 19th century. It was confirmed by the official elevation of Labre to a model of holiness: in 1860 he was beatified, in 1881 followed his sanctification.
Notes: Images from Francis De Sales: sculptor, drop of water in the ocean, impossible case. // From Fenelon: neant, from Phil 2:6, passivite, grandeur. He was a protege of Bossuet. Maintenon (wife of Louis XIV) liked then banished Guyon, called Bossuet in. During Issy, Fenelon made bishop and added to conference, signed articles. Maxims was an attempt to distinguish true and false mysticism.